Homily Three on the Day of the Foremost Apostles Peter and Paul
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
"I will give you (Peter and in his person all the apostles) the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19).
The Heavenly Kingdom, for which we are destined from the beginning of the world, was closed from the time of Adam's transgression due to his sins and the sins of his descendants. It was reopened anew through the cross and death of the Son of God, Who, by virtue of His divine-human merits, received from God the Father the authority to open and close it: to open for the penitent, and to close for the unrepentant. The Lord bestowed His authority upon the Apostles, and after them upon the Archbishops and Priests. For the first time, He promised to grant it to all the Apostles in the person of the Apostle Peter, when he confessed Him as the Son of God on behalf of them all. He said to him: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," etc. (Matthew 16:18). He did not say: I give, but – "I will give;" because at that time the sacrificial offering for the sins of the world had not yet been made, and the time to grant this authority had not yet arrived: it was given after the resurrection of the Lord from the dead, when He appeared to the Apostles, breathed on them, and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit: whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). Hence, brethren, you see how holy, important, venerable, and necessary the office of the Apostles, and their successors, the Archbishops and Priests, is within the Church of Christ: they are the servants of Christ and the builders of God's Mysteries; they continue the work of Christ; they open and close heaven for people; without them there is no authority to bind and loose human sins – there is no salvation. God the Father has given all authority to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ has given it to the Apostles and Priests. From this perspective, dear brethren, it is evident that the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven are perpetually available to those who earnestly seek to gain entry: these keys are entrusted to every priest, and one need only to sincerely repent of their sins before him, subsequently engaging in actions that demonstrate true repentance. How can those who choose not to seize this opportunity escape accountability – to enter the Kingdom of Heaven while disregarding the necessity of repentance and amendment, or feeling ashamed to confess to a priest, or dismissing confession as a mere human construct – and ultimately suffer the consequences solely due to their own negligence and inaction.
We thank You, our Savior, for not taking the keys of the Heavenly Kingdom with You to heaven, but for leaving them on earth – with Your Church, among the Apostles and their successors, saying to all of them: "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). We are grateful to You that the heavenly keys, bestowed by You from Your Father, were entrusted not to Angels, not to Cherubim and Seraphim, but to us, humble people, to whom You show grace – for a few sighs, tears, thumps on the chest, or a few words of sincere repentance, the doors of Your mercy and Your Heavenly Kingdom are opened to us. We have bound ourselves with thousands of untruths, passions, and lawlessness to Your Kingdom, and we have opened the abyss of hell for ourselves, ignited the fire of Gehenna, dissolved Tartarus in the depths, and produced the unceasing worm; yet You, O infinite Goodness, through Your voluntary self-abnegation and Your crucifixion for our sake – have delivered us from the torments of hell and opened the Heavenly Kingdom for those who believe in You.
Nevertheless, brethren, although the Kingdom of Heaven is now open to us, we ourselves can still close it for ourselves, and often we do indeed close it. Let us speak today about what closes and what opens the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Worldly passions and desires, malice, anger, hatred, envy, lack of self-control, impurity, hard-heartedness, and unmercifulness obstruct the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as it is inappropriate for a guest at a wedding to wear dirty and foul-smelling clothing, and if anyone dressed in such garments were to attend the wedding feast, they would be immediately cast out, it is equally inappropriate, indeed impossible, for a person whose soul is cloaked in unclean and foul passions to participate in the most pure and radiant wedding of the Lamb of God, who binds Himself in an eternal union with pure souls, washed clean by the tears of repentance or by the blood of earthly suffering and tribulations, especially by the blood of Christ.
Therefore, if we wish to gain entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, we must first purify our hearts from sin, cleanse the garments of our souls with tears of repentance and the immaculate blood of the Lamb of God, and more often dwell in heaven with our thoughts, desires, and love. The saints, who are to be our examples, due to their strong desire for heavenly blessings, were not attached to earthly goods, perceiving them as temporary and insignificant. While living in the body on earth, their souls and hearts resided in heaven. Indeed, how can one enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and what is the purpose of that Kingdom for one who is wholly devoted to earthly love, whose life and deeds are entirely earthly, and who does not even wish to contemplate their heavenly calling, neglecting the Lord's commandments, despising the Church, and rejecting her guidance? How can one inherit the Kingdom of Heaven who has not learned to govern over his passions and has not loved the Lord with all his heart? Who can claim victory wreaths without battle and triumph? Who grants a kingdom to a servant of passions? If every earthly title requires prior practice and acquaintance with the necessary tasks and qualities for its worthy attainment – and an unlearned and incapable person is not deemed worthy of a title that does not suit him, based on his knowledge and abilities – then how can a Christian, who has only borne this most honorable title, be deemed worthy of the heavenly title of heir of God and joint heir with Christ, when he has been unfamiliar with the obligations of it, has not struggled against sin, and has not acquired a single Christian virtue, entirely devoted to passions and valuing little his immortal soul, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the invaluable blood of the Son of God? No, that cannot be. The glutton and drunkard who despised abstinence and fasting shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven; having regarded food and drink as the greatest good and as if they were the ultimate goal of his life, he sold his birthright, like the pleasure-seeking Esau, for food and drink, and thus deprived himself of paternal blessing and heavenly dwelling.
No one who has clung to unclean pleasures in heart and who is consumed by the fire of beastly desires will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. How can such a person be allowed into paradise when the garment of his soul and body is perpetually defiled, and he does not think of repentance or wash himself with tears? It is impossible… And what would he do in the realm of purity and everlasting holiness? Only "the pure in heart shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).
A person with a cruel heart will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one who looks down with arrogance upon the destitute and gives them nothing from his abundance. How can he ascend to heaven, who throughout his life toils in worldly vanity, who daily languishes in the burning thirst for earthly pleasures to which he has devoted his heart, to which he has clung, while having developed not the slightest taste for spiritual, heavenly goods – I am not even speaking about strengthening that connection, they just do not have it; who has worked for wealth, yet not for God? Perhaps bring him to the heavenly abodes, if it were permitted, if only as an example, however he would find it dull there: for what exists there is not what is here; there are none of his beloved objects – there are no earthly treasures with which he has cherished and delighted his heart here. How will the great and generous and merciful Lord allow a hard-hearted miser into His Heavenly Kingdom? No: "God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7). Only those who are generous and merciful towards their brethren will be accepted in communion with the generous and merciful. The dispositions and inclinations of the soul acquired here will accompany us into the next world; and what torment awaits those who have departed this life with their earthly, sinful inclinations, who have always suppressed and stifled the heavenly needs of the soul, failing to bring forth sincere repentance within them? This is where the undying worm originates, about which our Savior speaks so often in the Gospel: this worm represents our sinful inclinations that are living and undying, even after death, which can be satisfied by nothing. Furthermore, associate with this undying worm an unquenchable fire, the fiercest of fires; for it is said: "Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44, 46, 48).
Thus, brethren in Christ, if we aspire to the Kingdom of Heaven, we must acquire heavenly virtues – we ought to live heavenly lives on earth. If you are ignorant of this heavenly life, that is, of virtue, come more often to the church: it is the heavenly school on earth, teaching you how to correct your life, what virtues you should possess; in the various faces of the saints, in each saint, it presents to you all kinds of virtues that you should fulfill.
Thus, my brethren, you see that the Kingdom of Heaven, opened to us by the crucifixion death of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is often closed by us through our own scattering, negligence, disbelief, worldly passions, lustfulness, carnal desires, covetousness, hardness of heart, greed, and other sins; he who commits such things, as the Apostle Paul says, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5). But if we ourselves close the gates of the Kingdom of God, then no one will be able to open them for us; for outside the Kingdom of God, there is eternal torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12; Luke 13:28).
Brethren! Heaven is our "true, eternal homeland," holy and safe from all enemies, from all destructive actions of the elements, "which themselves will be destroyed by fire" (2 Peter 3:10); no foe shall approach it; fire shall not consume it, as often happens with our earthly dwellings; water shall not flood it; it is not subject to destruction, like all that is on earth, but stands "unshakable" for endless ages (Hebrews 12:28). There are neither poor nor rich there, because there shall be no one consumed by greed for wealth; there is no illness, sorrow, or sighing, but eternal prosperity, eternal joy; "eternal joy is over their heads," as the Prophet Isaiah declares, having foreseen by the Spirit of God the blessedness of the righteous, "free from sickness, sorrow, and sighing" (Isaiah 51:11). Strive for that place, my brethren, by the path of virtuous living.
May you "be given abundantly an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:11). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
