By Fr. George Dorbarakis
These Holy Apostles (Stachys, Apelles, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus and Aristobulus), belonging to the circle of the Seventy Disciples of the Lord, had the unique and exceptional blessing of being close to their Teacher and having received the grace of Pentecost. They are certainly not at the height of the Twelve Apostles, within the body of our Church, but, albeit on a second “plane,” acting in obedience to the commandments of the Lord Himself, therefore following in His footsteps, they are teachers of the faithful to live with the right faith. As the Holy Hymnographer notes: “Following in the footsteps of Christ, who became incarnate for us out of mercy, most blessed ones, and obeying His divine commandments, you appeared as teachers of all who were in error towards piety."
Thus, these Apostles also became martyrs of the Lord, sent by Him into the world, to “feed” people with the food of the word of God, especially at a time when they were starving from the lack of the right faith. “You nourished those who were starving for faith through knowledge, Stachys blessed by God, making them, by the power and grace of God, partakers of the higher food." Indeed, the word of God constitutes food for man, while its lack leads to spiritual starvation, something that had already been announced from the Old Testament through the mouth of the Prophets: “the hunger of those who hearken to the Lord,” and was strongly testified to by the Lord Himself, during the first temptation He received after His Baptism in the desert by the devil: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” How much have we, the supposedly faithful Christians, realized this truth? How much, in other words, do we study the Gospel, do we study the words of the Lord and His Holy Apostles, do we study the “incarnate” gospel - the lives of the saints of our Church? Do we study those who interpreted Holy Scripture with God’s illumination - our Fathers? Isn’t it a shame, in fact, in an era when the word of God is sown richly, that there are our brethren in Christ who are literally starving spiritually?
So these Holy Apostles remind us today of this great truth. And the Holy Hymnographer emphasizes it even more: the saints are like the saving stream of a river, which saves from the “filthy waters” of error and waters the faithful with the grace of God. “Like a salvific stream, Urban, you drive away the bitter and unwholesome waters, and you pour down grace on the fullness of the pious.” This image refers to the labor of Hercules, when he cleaned the dung of Augeas. Which means: every time we are immersed in the teaching of the Holy Apostles, we must have this conviction, which in the well-intentioned person becomes a certainty of spiritual sensation: that we are entering a bath, in order to be cleansed and renewed. Or: that we are salted with that spiritual salt, so that we do not reach the point of the rot of error. “With the delightful salt of your teachings, Amplias, you have cleansed the rot of error.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
