Homily Two on the Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Andrew the First-Called
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
"God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men" (1 Cor. 4:9).
This time, on the glorious day of the commemoration of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, we will explain the daily reading from the Apostle, for this reading briefly gives us an understanding of the entire activity of Christ's Apostles, and therefore also of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called: their ardent love for Christ and for people, their lofty and unwavering faith and hope of eternal life, their self-denial for the sake of God and the salvation of people, their complete disdain for everything that flatters the feelings of the old man here in this age. Here is the reading from the Apostle in Russian:
"Brethren, God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in dishonor. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me" (1 Cor. 4:9-16).
As you see, the words of the Holy Apostle Paul are difficult to understand at first and require clarification. And first of all, what do these words of the Apostle mean? "I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death." To understand these words of the Apostle, let us recall what Jesus Christ predicted to His Disciples. He predicted the hatred of the world, persecution, beatings, and violent death. Why is this so? Why did the world receive its enlighteners, reformers, and renewers with such hostility? Because it was adulterous and sinful, so corrupted that it considered evil good and prosperity and virtue impiety, and considered all who attempted to correct and renew it impudent, impious, and disturbers of the public peace. The world slept in sin and showed no sign of awakening. And so, when people appeared who began to awaken it from the sweet slumber of sin, when the Apostles began to expose the error of the world and proclaim a new teaching, a new life, new rules of life, repentance, the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and lusts, when they touched the sore spots of the corrupt world, when they touched the dark and evil power of Belial, that is, the devil, who reigned freely over the world for thousands of years, then the world arose from its sleep and armed itself with all the power of malice against those who awakened it from this sleep, that is, against the Apostles who appeared to it with the light of heavenly truth, because for them the light of this truth was a disease, and began to persecute the Apostles as enemies, as disturbers of public peace, as villains, as opponents of the power of Caesar - and what slanders were not raised against the messengers of the Lord! And so they began to revile the Apostles, intimidate them, beat them, imprison them, torture them, behead them, and crucify them. This explanation makes clear the Apostle's words quoted above: that God judged them to be, as it were, condemned to death, for they were sent like sheep among wolves, because the world gnashed its teeth at them like a fierce beast and prepared for them various kinds of death. This is why the Apostle goes on to say: "We are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men;" a spectacle, for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, led to the cross and crucified, was, as it were, a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. But why do the Apostles call themselves the last messengers? They call themselves the last messengers because they truly were the last extraordinary messengers of God, armed with the extraordinary gifts of tongues, miracles, and prophecy. Before the Apostles, the Prophets were extraordinary messengers of God, and especially the last of the Old Testament Prophets, John the Baptist. The last extraordinary messenger was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as He Himself says in the Gospel: "Then last of all He (God) sent His Son to them" (Matthew 21:37), and after Him, the Apostles, sent by Him, as He Himself said: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21). The Apostles are called the last messengers in the sense that after them there will be no more such messengers until the end of the world: for the gospel proclaimed by them is an everlasting covenant that will not pass away.
Now let us listen to what the Apostle says next: “We,” he says, “are fools for Christ’s sake, but you," that is, the Corinthians, "are wise in Christ.” What does this mean? The Apostles, wise in the Holy Spirit, who enlightened the whole world with their teaching, call themselves fools for Christ’s sake. To understand these words, we must connect them with the following words of the same Apostle: “Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. As it is written: ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain’” (1 Cor. 3:18–20). And so the Apostles call themselves fools for Christ’s sake because they rejected earthly, vain wisdom, which is foolishness with God, and followed the wisdom of God, which in the eyes of the world is foolishness. In this sense, the fools for Christ's sake were also called insane, for example, Andrew the Fool for Christ: in appearance they were as if insane, but in essence they were great sages of Christ.
"We," says the Apostle, "are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ," that is, you pay all your attention to the outward wisdom of the teachers of faith, for the Corinthians were quarreling among themselves and saying: I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, that is, Peter, and I am of Christ; you claim that this teacher speaks eloquently, while another does not – simply; this one is learned, and that one is unlettered and plain, whereas all attention should have been directed not to eloquence and learning, but to the truth and power of the apostolic word.
"We are weak," he says, that is, alien to worldly significance, worldly means, aids, and we trust in only the power of Christ, which is made perfect in weaknesses, "but you are strong," that is, you trust in your own strength and in the advantages of your teachers, and you have lost sight of the power of Christ, the power of the cross.
"You are held in honor, but we in dishonor," that is, you boast among yourself of your teachers, whereas your only Teacher and ours is Christ (Matthew 23:8), and we are only His servants. Sometimes we ourselves are in dishonor, like our Teacher, for even to this day we suffer hunger and thirst, and nakedness, and beatings, and we wander about and toil, working with our own hands. The Apostle points out to the Corinthians his hunger and thirst, nakedness and beatings as a rebuke of their satiety, enrichment, and ambition, which he mentioned above, saying: "You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us" (1 Cor. 4:8). But why did the Apostles suffer hunger, thirst, and nakedness? Is not the laborer worthy of his reward (Matthew 10:10)? He is worthy, without a doubt. But they endured hunger and thirst, firstly, for the sake of mortifying and enslaving the flesh to their spirit, and secondly, because in their evangelistic labors they often had no time to think about food; they endured nakedness because the Lord did not command them to have two garments (Luke 9:3), so that nothing would entice them, bind them to the earth, or distract their apostolic attention, which should be directed to the salvation of human souls. They endured beatings because they denounced human vices: idolatry, pride, superstition, hypocrisy, and so on. They wandered because they needed to spread the gospel of the Kingdom of God. They labored, working with their own hands, so as not to burden any of the believers with their requests, most of whom were poor people, and to show an example of industriousness.
"When reviled," he says, "we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things" (1 Cor. 4:12-13). Like sheep sent by Jesus Christ into the midst of wolves, to transform all the wolves' brutality into sheepish meekness, the Apostles, by the instruction and strengthening of the Lord, were true lambs of meekness and gentleness in the midst of a wicked world, and by their meekness and gentleness they conquered the world and its malice, which could not withstand divine meekness. People, seeing their meekness, patience, and merciful prayer for those who reviled and persecuted, were convinced of the truth and heavenly origin of the Christian faith, which so powerfully and miraculously transformed people from evil to good, which instilled in them such heavenly qualities — and they themselves converted to the faith of Christ.
And now, brethren, how can we be convinced that we are true Christians or not? By our meekness, by our gentleness; if we are reviled, we bless; if we are persecuted, we endure it; if we are slandered, we pray to God for those who slander, that He may not hold this sin against them, but may turn their hearts to Him. "We," the Apostle continues, "are as the refuse of the world," as dust, trampled underfoot by all. Why is this so? Why were the Apostles, the gold of God, refuse and dust to the world? Because the world has its treasures, its honorable persons: wealth and rich people, nobility, worldly education, expensive clothes and well-dressed people - these and similar people are honored by the world. And the Apostles? They were poor, hungry, thirsty, naked, lacking worldly education.
Why then should the world respect them? The world despised them and held them in low esteem simply because they did not have what the world's corrupt taste pleases. And what if the world had known what they carried in their hearts? But how could it have come to this? He was all about outward appearances. Even now, a glittering outward appearance drives everyone crazy, and humble piety is neglected. "I do not write this to make you ashamed," the Apostle continues, "but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me" (1 Cor. 4:14-16).
And so, brethren, this is why the Holy Apostle Paul, in the passage from his Epistle to the Corinthians now read, described the way of life and conduct of the Holy Apostles and reproved the Corinthians for their unchristian behavior, so that they and we might be imitators of the Apostles, as they were of Christ. We also turn to you with this prayer: be imitators, as far as your ability goes, of the Apostles of Christ. If the example of Jesus Christ Himself is lofty, unattainable for you to imitate, then imitate, each according to his own ability, His Disciples. Let those who are zealous for mere secular wisdom, who disdain spiritual wisdom, the wisdom of the Gospel, know that God has turned the wisdom of this world into foolishness, and let them, like the Apostles, be fools for Christ's sake, that they may be wise — that is, foolish only in appearance, but wise in essence; insane to the short-sighted, myopic world, which sees everything through its distorted glasses — so that true wisdom appears to it as madness, and madness as wisdom, virtue as foolishness, and vice as a sign of the current tone. Strive to mortify in yourselves carnal wisdom, such as how to dress best, how to become rich, and instead love spiritual wisdom, such as how to clothe yourself in Christ, in His virtues, and become rich in good deeds.
If you are rich, then do not forget that there are naked people in need of your mercy and a small donation; you do not grudge tens and hundreds of rubles for your own clothing, but do not grudge the poor even one ruble for rags. If you do not hunger and thirst for Christ's sake, then at least do not forget that there are those who hunger and thirst, who need your crumbs, of which you have plenty. From your abundance, clothe and feed your poor brethren; deprive yourselves, at least in part, of your body, that you may gain something for your soul. You do not wander, like the Apostles, from one city to another, or from house to house, and live in permanent places and well-furnished dwellings, but remember that there are wandering brothers and sisters of yours, sometimes having nowhere to lay their heads, shaking with cold; they need your help, they need money to purchase a roof.
If some of you do not labor, do not work with their hands, because you are content with everything, then at least provide work for those who seek it and support their existence by work. If it happens that you meet with offense from your neighbor, bear it without malice and pray for the one who offends you: for such is the will of the Lord. For such and incomparably more than this did the Lord Himself suffer from His servants and His apostles. "In your patience possess your souls" (Luke 21:19). Be weak to sin and strong to do good, endure dishonor and reproach for the sake of Christ and hate the vain honor and glory of this world, so that you will be imitators of Jesus Christ and His Apostles and be deemed worthy of the incorruptible Kingdom of God, which may we all attain, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
