Second Sunday of Pentecost: On Obedience to the Will of Christ

 

Second Sunday of Pentecost

On Obedience to the Will of Christ

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

A wonderful example of true obedience to the word of God was shown to us by the Apostles of Christ. One day Jesus Christ was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting nets. “Follow Me,” He said to them, “and I will make you fishers of men.” And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. They went on, and Jesus Christ saw two more brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father and mending nets. And He called them. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.

Oh, if only we Christians were as ready to listen to the word of God and to fulfill the Gospel law! But, unfortunately, how many excuses we give for not following Christ, not fulfilling His Holy law. For example, Sunday or some feast day comes; the bell rings, prompting us to leave worldly affairs and inviting us to go to God’s temple to pray. What then? Do we obey the call of our Orthodox Church? Unfortunately, not always and not all. “We are overcome by the cares of life,” some say, “that is why there is no time to go to God’s temple.” What an unreasonable concern for daily needs! Do we not know that success in our affairs depends on God?! Listen to what is told in the “Prologue”: 

There were two neighbors, both tailors. One man had many children, and his father and mother were old, but he fed the whole family without need, and went to church every day. His neighbor was more skilled at work and worked tirelessly, even on Sundays, and did not go to church at all; however, he could not feed himself. And so the latter envied the former and once said to him with annoyance: “Where do you get everything from? I work more than you, but I live like a beggar.” He answered him: “I go to church every day and every time I find a piece of gold on the road, so little by little I got rich. Do you want me to call for you, and what we find we will divide in half?” The neighbor readily agreed and began to go to church with him. And God blessed him for this, and he soon became rich. Then the good neighbor said to him: “Do you see, brother, how useful it is to go to God's church? But believe me: I did not find any gold on the road, but went to the temple of God simply because God Himself promised: 'Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all other things will be added to you' (Matt. 6:33). You see for yourself – I did not lie: God added to you for your zeal for the temple of God.”

"I will pray at home," some say. But do they know that one "Lord have mercy" said in church with the company of believers is worth a hundred prostrations at home during prayer? The Church has decreed that we should be in the temple of God on feasts, and we must obey it, and not philosophize in our own way: "I will pray at home." 

Listen to the account of a pious warrior regarding a certain merchant. He was a good man, sometimes willing to give his last kopeck to the poor. However, he did not like attending church, even though he was a very devout person. "It makes no difference," he reasoned, "whether I pray at home or in church: God is one." During the service, he would often go out to the fields to check on the crops in the summer, and in the winter, he would attend to various chores around the house. Once, on the day of Saint Peter, he went into the field, and the All-Night Vigil had already been called. The evening was beautiful, when suddenly a black cloud loomed over the forest, it began to rain, a terrible thunder roared, and lightning flashed just two steps away from the merchant... This time, God spared him: he remained unharmed. On another occasion, during the Divine Liturgy, on the feast of the Elevation of the Cross of the Lord, he entered a forest sentry hut and had barely closed the door behind him when the ceiling collapsed in the hallway... And here, the Lord preserved him; yet, he did not take heed and continued to refrain from attending church, although his friend often urged him to go. Finally, the Lord guided him onto the true path. The Feast of the Holy Trinity had arrived. The merchant was in the city, where he had received his hard-earned money from the bank, intending to transfer it to another bank. They had announced the All-Night Vigil, but the merchant decided to return home. His acquaintances urged him, saying, "Where are you going? Tomorrow is a great feast; it would be wise to go to church and pray — you are in no hurry." But he did not listen. "At home," he said, "I will pray, since it's better to travel when it is cool." And so he set off. As he traveled, he sang divine hymns; meanwhile, the sky became overcast, and rain began to fall, and it grew dark.

He rode the forest, and suddenly someone seized his horse and shouted, "Stop!" In fright, he could not move a muscle. Several men pounced on him, dragged him off the wagon, and what happened next – he remembers nothing. He awoke to find that it was already light – the horse was gone, he was undressed, blood flowing in several places, and he could not move a finger, feeling the onset of a feverish tremor. It was then that the merchant turned to God with a fervent prayer of repentance: "Lord! I am a sinner, I have not visited Your holy dwelling; forgive me, Merciful Father, do not let me die like a dog! I will, I most certainly will attend church!" After this prayer, he fell back into a state of unconsciousness and awoke in the home of his friend, who had found him by chance. The merchant fell ill for six months, but never once complained to the Lord God; he prayed continuously and said: "I am not worthy of this: glory to You, Lord!" When he recovered, he began to attend church diligently: he would go even before the bell announced the service, and would be the last to leave; he stood there praying, tears streaming down his face. A year passed, and the day of the Holy Trinity arrived once more. The merchant went to the All-Night Vigil and prayed earnestly and tearfully that the Lord would place him somewhere: one cannot live forever on another's bread. After the vigil, he received a letter. And from whom do you think this letter was? From the one who robbed him a year ago and left him without a crust of bread. And this wicked man writes that his conscience has tormented him, that he can no longer keep his money and wishes to return it in full to its owner... The merchant read the letter, wept, fell to his knees before the icon of the Savior, and began to pray... The money was returned to him, and he set his affairs in order. It goes without saying that after such a divine mercy, the merchant became even more diligent in his devotion to the Church and in church services.

Thus, Christians, heed the voice of your Mother Church: attend the house of God!

The shepherds of the Church often exhort Christians to abandon a sinful life and begin anew, in accordance with the Gospel law. Well, do we heed their voice? Unfortunately, we either listen very little or not at all. But listen to how beneficial the word of God proclaimed by the shepherds is to the soul of the sinner. Perhaps you have heard of our Russian saint, the Venerable Nikita the Stylite? Who was he before? He was born and raised in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky, in the Vladimir province. When he reached the age of maturity, he became friends with tax collectors, working alongside them to persuade the judges, and inflicted much distress and harm upon innocent people. Collecting unrighteous bribes, he fed himself and his wife with this. He spent many years in this way. Once he entered the church and heard the words of the Prophet Isaiah: "Wash yourselves, and be clean, take away wickedness from your souls" (Isaiah 1:16). These words struck him: he spent the whole night without sleep; his iniquities lay like a stone in his heart. In the morning he went out to his friends and, in order to amuse himself, invited them to his place for the evening. Having bought what he needed for the feast, he ordered his wife to cook. But when she began to cook, she saw first blood on top of the water, then a head, then another part of the human body. In horror she told her husband about it. He came and saw the same thing. "Woe is me, for I have greatly sinned!" exclaimed Nikita and, without uttering another word, left the house and devoted himself to arduous feats upon the pillar. "The seed is the word of God," said the Savior (cf. Luke 8:11), and from a seed, both in the visible nature and in the nature of our souls, fruit does not appear immediately. However, sooner or later, the word of God, according to the Holy Scriptures, will not remain barren and unfruitful (see: John 12:24).

"Let us wait to follow the Gospel teachings for at least another year or a day; let us live for ourselves for a bit longer, and then we can live for God," – so say some. What a lack of courage! As if it will be easier to part with our sinful habits in a year or two! Is it not the opposite, is it not much more difficult! This is what our Venerable Father Dorotheos recounts. A great elder was walking with his disciples in a place where there were various cypress trees, both large and small. The elder said to one of his disciples: "Uproot this cypress." The cypress was small, and the brother immediately uprooted it with one hand. Then the elder pointed to another tree, larger than the first, and said: "Pull this one out as well." The brother shook it with both hands and uprooted it. Again, the elder pointed to an even larger cypress, but the brother, although he worked hard and sweated, could not uproot it. Then the elder commanded another brother to stand up and assist him, and only together could they barely uproot it. The elder said to the brothers: "Thus it is with passions or sinful desires: while they are small, if we wish, we can easily uproot them from our hearts; but if we neglect them, they become strengthened, and the greater they grow, the more effort they demand from us; and when they become deeply rooted within us, even with great effort we cannot uproot them alone, unless we receive assistance from certain saints who assist us by God's grace." Thus, Christians, do not hesitate in the face of any obstacle, do not justify yourselves, and do not postpone any good undertaking indefinitely. As soon as you hear the voice of the Church or its shepherd calling you to a good deed, you must immediately set aside everything and engage in the work of your salvation, just as the Apostles Simon and Andrew did upon hearing the call of the Savior. 

 

Source: From the book The Simple Gospel Word: Stories and Reflections from the Gospel Readings on Sundays and Feasts, 1890. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.