At Jacob's Well Christ Encountered the Whole Fallen World (Monk Moses the Athonite)

By Monk Moses the Athonite

In today’s Gospel passage from the Evangelist John the Theologian, we heard in our churches about the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman beside a well…

This meeting is of especially great importance not only for the suffering woman. Christ meets the whole fallen world, even the world of today. He does not quarrel with, reject, or drive anyone away. He wishes to communicate with everyone, even the most downtrodden. Christ Himself said that He came chiefly for sinners. It is enough that they receive Him, that they open the leaves of their closed hearts to Him. He does not ask for much. A little water. Something very small, in order to become the occasion for an exit from the cage of our self-imprisonment.

At first the Samaritan woman is rather cautious. She is bound by mistaken opinions, fanatical ideas, long-standing prejudices, and therefore trapped, ensnared, blocked, and suspicious. According to her tradition, she is unable to give water to a Jew, to an enemy. Christ in truth is not greatly thirsty for water. He thirsts for the liberation of His afflicted interlocutor. The conversation begins to become fascinating and revelatory.

Sunday of Holy Pascha (1-2 of 15)

Sunday of Holy Pascha

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

1. The Bright Resurrection of Christ

There are many bright and solemn feasts in the Holy Orthodox Church; but none is brighter and more solemn, none more joyful and comforting than the great day of the Resurrection of Christ, when all is clothed in light, the heavens rejoice, the earth is glad, and the whole world celebrates the great victory of our Savior over death and Hades.

This is what the Gospel relates about this glorious and great event. Great Saturday had passed, on the night of which Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemos buried the Body of Jesus. The tomb in which He was laid was sealed with a great stone; a guard stood by it — the chief priests and Pharisees persuaded Pilate and set it there to guard the tomb until the third day, lest the disciples of Christ come by night, steal His body, and say to the people: 'He has risen from the dead" (cf. Matt. 27:64). But on the third day after His sufferings on the Cross and His death, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, according to the writings of the prophets. This took place after midnight from Saturday to the following day (now Sunday). The soldiers who stood guard saw that after the Resurrection of the Savior an Angel rolled away the stone from the tomb, and they were witnesses of the earthquake that occurred at that time. The appearance of the Angel who rolled away the stone, according to the Evangelist Matthew, was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow (cf. Matt. 28:3). This appearance of the Angel, his radiant garment, was a living expression of his heavenly joy and the bright triumph in heaven, which on this great day, according to the testimony of the Holy Church, was filled with a special light. Struck and terrified by this miracle, the soldiers fell down and for some time remained as if senseless. Coming to themselves, they went and told everything that had happened to the chief priests. And they, bribing the soldiers, instructed them to say to the people that during the night, while they were asleep, the disciples of Jesus Christ came and stole the body of their Teacher. But this malicious and absurd invention of the enemies of Christ did not succeed: the truth of Christ’s Resurrection was in a short time testified to the whole world and became its possession.

Prologue in Sermons: October 14

The Word of the Savior Has a Gracious and Powerful Effect on the Human Heart

October 14*

(Sermon on the Two Monks Who Saved the Harlot)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord said, "It is the Spirit who gives life... The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). What do these words of the Savior mean? By them He points to the gracious, extraordinary, and powerful effect of His word on the human heart when these words are heard with humility, reverence, deep attention, and a willingness to follow them. This truth, in our opinion, can best be demonstrated by the examples of sinners who, solely through such listening to the word of Christ, turned to Christ, abandoned their sinful lives, became righteous from sinners, and now rejoice there — in the mansions of the Heavenly Father. Let us therefore turn to the matter itself for proof.

Homily Two on the Sunday Before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Christ (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Sunday Before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Christ

By St. John of Kronstadt

"No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven" (John 3:13).

Before Jesus Christ, no one among mortals ascended to heaven, except Him, the Son of Man who descended from heaven. No one ascended to heaven because it had been closed to humanity since the transgression of Adam: for Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, and the wicked shall not come near Him, nor shall the workers of iniquity stand in His sight (Ps. 5:5–6). Only the Son of Man, who descended from heaven and is in heaven, has ascended with His humanity, for He fulfilled all righteousness for us with His humanity united to the Divinity, and when He was baptized in the Jordan and prayed, the heavens, long sealed by Adam's sin, were opened to Him first; and He, after His suffering, death, and resurrection, ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, showing us the way to ascend there as well. You might say that Enoch and Elijah were taken up to heaven. No, not to heaven, but only to the abodes of the righteous, only as if to heaven, according to the expression of Sacred Scripture. What, then, follows from what has been said? That heaven, our true homeland, for which we were created, is now once more opened for mankind by the Son of God, and people have become children of God in Christ. Therefore, strive, brethren, toward the open heaven, in the likeness of the saints who have pleased God since ancient times and have inherited the heavenly homeland; do not dream that the earth is your homeland, rather live as pilgrims and sojourners, and be ready every hour to pass through death to your homeland.

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture: The Gospels (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture 

The Gospels

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Sunday, August 10, 2025)

In previous Sundays we briefly presented the books of the Old Testament, the historical, prophetic and poetic, and in what follows we will briefly look at the books of the New Testament. As we have emphasized, in the Old Testament the Son and Word of God spoke, while in the New Testament the incarnate Word of God, that is, Christ, spoke. The first texts of the New Testament are the four Gospels, and in particular the first Gospel, that of Matthew, is in a way the link between the Old and New Testaments, and this is evident not only because it is the first book of the New Testament, but because it begins with the genealogical table of the Forefathers of Christ who lived in the Old Testament, and then speaks of the birth of Christ as a man.

Homily at the Paraklesis of the Theotokos: On the Significance of 'Trivialities' in our Lives (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily at the Paraklesis of the Theotokos: 
On the Significance of 'Trivialities' in our Lives

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1961, the Third Week After Pentecost)

"Unashamed protection of Christians, unwavering mediator to the Maker, do not disregard the prayerful cries of sinners, but hasten, as one who is good, to our aid, as we faithfully call upon you: Be speedy to intercede, and be quick to entreat, the ever-protectress, Theotokos, of those who honor you."

So very often with special tenderness the Holy Church proclaims in honor and praise of the Most Blessed Virgin Theotokos, casting before Her all our unworthy prayers and referring to Her alone all timely help from above.

The Church accepts as an indisputable truth that the protection of the Most Holy Theotokos extends over the entire human race, and especially over the Christian race, and over all of us in particular. The Most Holy Virgin, as a loving Mother, loves the human race, and most of all, Christians; can She remain indifferent to the lives and destinies of people, not care for them, not provide them with Her protection? The prayers of the Queen of Heaven for us are graciously accepted by Her Son and God. At Her intercession, He performed His first miracle, turning water into wine in Cana of Galilee. And this Gospel lesson serves as the most joyful proof for Christians, an assurance of the truth that the Mother of God invariably intercedes for Christians before Her Son.

Saint Prochoros the Deacon

Written information about Saint Prochoros is scarce. The only mention of his name is in the Acts of the Apostles (6:5), as one of the seven first Deacons ordained by the Apostles. A tradition states that he was the nephew of the Protomartyr Stephen. Apart from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, there is no other mention of his name in an official ecclesiastical document. 

He is traditionally numbered among the Seventy Apostles, and it is believed he first accompanied the Apostle Peter before joining the Apostle John in his missionary travels.

More information is found in the Apocryphal work "Acts, namely the Travels of Saint John the Evangelist, written by his disciple Prochoros." According to the said book, manuscripts of which date back to the 6th century and are preserved in the Monastery of Saint John in Patmos, Prochoros is presented as a disciple and follower of the Apostle John in Asia Minor, in Ephesus and in Patmos. While on the island of Patmos it is believed that the Apostle John dictated to Prochoros his Gospel.

January: Day 9: Teaching 1: Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow

 

January: Day 9: Teaching 1:
Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow
 
(On the Mutual Relations of Shepherds and Flock)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, a Wonderworker, glorified by the Holy Church today, came from the Kolychev family of boyars. In his youth he served at the court of Grand Prince Vasily, the father of Ivan the Terrible. At the age of 30 he took monastic vows at the Solovetsky Monastery, where he later became abbot. Being a strict ascetic, he worked diligently on the improvement of the Monastery, to which he gave all his wealth: he built two churches, arranged a skete and a hospital for monks, built roads, and drained swamps. In 1566, at the request of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, he was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, at that terrible time when Ivan the Terrible brought his disgrace upon the boyars. Surrounding himself with oprichniks, the Tsar, on their slander, executed all those suspected of sedition. The Saint interceded before the Tsar for people condemned to death, countered the false slanders of the oprichniks, denounced the Tsar himself for cruelty and injustice, and thus incurred the Tsar's wrath. Slanderers were found with accusations of sedition against the Saint, and in 1568 he was defrocked, imprisoned, and finally exiled to the Otroch Monastery in Tver, where a year later he was strangled by the oprichnik Malyuta Skuratov.

On the Words: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (St. Luke of Simferopol)

On the Words: “It is the Spirit who Gives Life; the Flesh Profits Nothing” (John 6:63)

By St. Luke of Simferopol

(Homily Delivered on May 25, 1948)

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). This is what our Lord and God Jesus Christ said. He said that true life - eternal life - is only in the Spirit who gives life, in the Holy Spirit! He says that the flesh does not benefit at all.

We are made up of flesh and spirit, we are not disembodied spirits, and our lives take place in constant interaction between spirit and flesh. This interaction, scary to say, is hostile, as the holy Apostle Paul says: “The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh” (Gal. 5:17). They oppose each other, and our whole life is a constant struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The flesh pulls us down to the earth; our spirit strives upward to God, but alas the flesh holds it back with all its might, does not allow it to rise upward. The flesh demands service to itself, demands care exclusively for itself, demands that all its lusts, all its desires be fulfilled. The flesh demands that we be its slaves. And the spirit strives with all its might to get rid of these sinful and base bonds. The immortal spirit eternally strives for God, strives for the Kingdom of truth and eternal beauty. This is where the struggle between spirit and flesh arises, and this is why the Lord said that the Spirit gives life. And if He gives life, if there is true life in Him, then we must strive to ensure that the spirit conquers the flesh, for the flesh itself does not benefit, there is no spiritual benefit from it, but only harm, only a hindrance in our spiritual life.

Gospel Commentary for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha - John 17:3 (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

By St. Cyril of Alexandria

From his Commentary on the Gospel of John (Bk. 11, Ch. 5)

"This, then, is eternal life, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

He defines faith as the mother of eternal life, and says that the power of the true knowledge of God will be such as to cause us to remain forever in a state of incorruption, and blessedness, and sanctification. And we say that that is true knowledge of God, which cannot incur the reproach of turning aside to aught else, or running after things unseemly. For some have "worshipped the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom. 1:25), and have dared "to say to a block of wood: 'Thou art my Father;' and to a stone, 'Thou hast begotten me'" (Jer. 2:27). For to such abysmal ignorance did miserable men relapse, that they even gave, in all its fullness, the great Name of God, to senseless blocks of wood; and invested them with the ineffable glory of that Nature, which is over all. He calls God the Father, then, the only true God, by contrast to spurious gods, and with the intention to distinguish the true God, from those who are so named in error; for this is the object of His words. Very appropriately, then, He first speaks of God as being One and One only, and then makes mention of His own glory in the words: "And Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent." For a man can in nowise attain to complete knowledge of the Father, unless side by side, and in most intimate connexion with it, he lay hold on the knowledge of His Offspring; that is, the Son. For, if a man know what the Father is, he cannot but know also the Son. When, then, He said that the Father was the true God, He did not exclude Himself. For being in Him, and of Him, by Nature, He will be also Himself the true God and the only God, as He is the only God: for beside Him, there is none other god who is the only true God. "For the gods of the heathen are devils" (Ps. 96:5). For the creation is enslaved, and I know not how any worship them, or sink into such a slough of unreasoning and sensuous folly. With the many gods, then, in this world, who are erroneously so conceived, and have won this spurious title, the only true God is brought into contrast; and the Son also, Who is by Nature in Him, and of Him, at once in diversity and in identity of Nature, according to a natural Unity. I say in diversity of Nature, because He has in fact an individual Existence; for the Son is the Son, and not the Father. In identity of Nature also, because the Son, Who came forth from Him, is inseparably joined by Nature, with the existence of His Father. For the Father is one with the Son, even though He is the Father; and is so spoken of, because He did in fact beget Him.

Homily Two for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha (St. John Chrysostom)

Homily 81 on the Gospel of John

(John 17:6-13)

By St. John Chrysostom

"I have manifested Your Name unto the men which You gave Me out of the world; Yours they were, and You gave them Me, and they have kept Your word" (John 17:6).

1. "'Messenger' of great counsel" (Isaiah 9:6, Septuagint), the Son of God is called, because of the other things which He taught, and principally because He announced the Father to men, as also now He says, "I have manifested Your Name unto the men." For after having said, "I have finished Your work," He next explains it in detail, telling what sort of work. Now the Name indeed was well known. For Esaias said, "You shall swear by the true God" (Isaiah 65:16). But what I have often told you I tell you now, that though it was known, yet it was so only to Jews, and not to all of these: but now He speaks concerning the Gentiles. Nor does He declare this merely, but also that they knew Him as the Father. For it is not the same thing to learn that He is Creator, and that He has a Son. But He "manifested His Name" both by words and actions.

Gospel Commentary for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha - John 17:2 (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

By St. Cyril of Alexandria

From his Commentary on the Gospel of John (Bk. 11, Ch. 4)

"Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever Thou hast given Him, to them He shall give eternal life" (John 17:2).

In these words Christ expounds once more to us the kind of glory whereby God will exalt and glorify His own Son; and He will also Himself be glorified in turn by His own Offspring. And He expands the saying, and makes the point clear to our edification and profit. For what need had God the Father, Who knows all things, of learning the kind of request? He invites then the Father's goodness towards us. For since He is the High Priest of our souls, insomuch as He appeared as Man, though being by Nature God together with the Father, He most fittingly makes His prayer on our behalf; trying to persuade us to believe that He is, even now, the propitiation for our sins, and a just Advocate, as John says. Therefore also Paul, wishing us to be of this mind, thus exhorts us: "For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are; yet without sin." Then, since He is an High Priest, insomuch as He is Man, and, at the same time, brought Himself a blameless sacrifice to God the Father, as a ransom for the life of all men, being as it were the firstfruits of mortality, "that in all things He might have the pre-eminence," as Paul says; and He reconciles to Him the reprobate race of man upon the earth, purifying them by His own Blood, and shaping them to newness of life through the Holy Spirit; and since, as we have often said, all things are accomplished by the Father through the Son in the Spirit; He moulds the prayer for blessings towards us, as Mediator and High Priest, though He unites with His Father in giving and providing Divine and spiritual graces. For Christ divides the Spirit, according to His own will and pleasure, to every man severally, as He will.

Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers - The Prayer of Christ for Unity (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers

The Prayer of Christ for Unity

7th Sunday After Pascha

June 5, 2022

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

"Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are" (John 17:11).

Beloved brethren,

In the High Priestly Prayer of Christ before His Passion, there is talk of the unity of the Disciples/Christians. Christ entreats His Father to keep the Disciples in His name "that they may be one" (Jn. 17:11). This passage is often used by people who seek the so-called union of "Churches", but we can say that it is most often, if not always, misinterpreted. Here Christ is not entreating His Father for the future unity of the so-called "Churches", but for the unity "in the glory of Christ", which is given to the saints and is a present reality within the Church.

Homily One for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (St. John of Kronstadt)

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed” (John 17:5).

On this seventh Sunday after Pascha, the Church commemorates and glorifies the 318 Holy and God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, convened in the Greek city of Nicaea by the emperor Constantine the Great on May 20, 325 after the Nativity of Christ, for the affirmation of the true teaching about the Son of God, shaken by the false teaching of the heretic Arius, who rejected the Divinity of the Son of God, and other like-minded people.

Among the other Holy Fathers present at the Synod of Nicaea were: Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Saint Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and accompanying him was the young deacon Athanasius, a native of the city of Alexandria, whom Alexander greatly respected for his extraordinary gifts, for his intellect, deep theological education, straightforwardness, courage, power of speech, and for his lofty Christian life; later he himself was elected archbishop of the city of Alexandria, after the death of Bishop Alexander. Also present at the Synod were Saint Paphnutios, Bishop of the Thebaid in Egypt, Paul, Bishop of Neocaesarea, Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythous, the great wonderworker, and the bishop of the island of Cyprus, Saint James of Nisibis, also a wonderworker, and others. All 318 fathers were from different countries.

Homily One for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha (St. John Chrysostom)

Homily 80 on the Gospel of John

(John 17:1-5)

By St. John Chrysostom

"These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and says, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You" (Jn. 17:1).

1. "He that has done and taught," it says, "the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven." And with much reason; for to show true wisdom in words, is easy, but the proof which is by works is the part of some noble and great one. Wherefore also Christ, speaking of the endurance of evil, puts Himself forth, bidding us take example from Him. On this account too, after this admonition, He betakes Himself to prayer, teaching us in our temptations to leave all things, and flee to God. For because He had said, "In the world you shall have tribulation," and had shaken their souls, by the prayer He raises them again. As yet they gave heed unto Him as to a man; and for their sake He acts thus, just as He did in the case of Lazarus, and there tells the reason; "Because of the people that stand by I said it, that they might believe that You have sent Me" (John 11:42). "Yea," says some one, "this took place with good cause in the case of the Jews; but wherefore in that of the disciples?" With good cause in the case of the disciples also. For they who, after all that had been said and done, said, "Now we know that You know" (John 16:30), most of all needed to be established. Besides, the Evangelist does not even call the action prayer; but what says he? "He lifted up His eyes to heaven," and says rather that it was a discoursing with the Father. And if elsewhere he speaks of prayer, and at one time shows Him kneeling on His knees, at another lifting His eyes to heaven, be not thou troubled; for by these means we are taught the earnestness which should be in our petitions, that standing we should look up, not with the eyes of the flesh only, but of the mind, and that we should bend our knees, bruising our own hearts. For Christ came not merely to manifest Himself, but also about to teach virtue ineffable. But it behooves the teacher to teach, not by words only, but also by actions. Let us hear then what He says in this place.

Gospel Commentary for the Seventh Sunday of Pascha - John 17:1 (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

 

By St. Cyril of Alexandria

From his Commentary on the Gospel of John (Bk. 11, Ch. 3)

"These things spake Jesus; and lifting up His eyes to heaven He said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee" (Jn. 17:1).

Having given His disciples a sufficiency of things necessary for salvation, and incited them by fitting words and arguments to a more accurate apprehension of His doctrines, and made them best able to battle against temptation, and confirmed the courage of each one, He straightway changes the form of His speech for our profit, and turns it into a kind of prayer, allowing no interval to elapse between His discourse to them and His prayer to God the Father; herein also by His own conduct suggesting to us a type of admirable life. For the man who aims at serving God ought, I think, to bear in mind that he ought at all events either to be fond of discoursing to his brethren of things profitable or necessary for their salvation, or, if he be not so engaged, to hasten to employ the service of the tongue in supplications to God, so as to render it impossible for any random words to slip in between; for in this way the governance of the tongue may be well and suitably ordered. For is it not quite obvious that, in vain conversations, things blameworthy may very readily escape a man? Moreover, a wise man has said: "In the multitude of words thou shalt not escape sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise" (Prov. 10:19).

The Conversation of Jesus Christ with Nicodemos (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Homily on the Conversation of Jesus Christ with Nicodemos

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on August 17, 1948 - Tuesday of the 8th week of Pentecost)

I am asked to explain the conversation of the Lord Jesus Christ with Nicodemos. The conversation is mysterious, the conversation is extremely important and not understandable to everyone. Let's delve into it.

“Among the Pharisees there was a certain man named Nicodemos, one of the leaders of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said to Him: 'Rabbi! we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do such miracles as You do unless God is with him'” (John 3:1–2).

One of the prominent members of the Sanhedrin, pure in heart, struck by the depth of His teaching and believing in Him, came to Him for a conversation. But how did he come? At night, secretly, so that other members of the Sanhedrin would not find out. This, of course, is not good, this is cowardice; this confuses us, for we know that he was a pure man, that together with Joseph of Arimathea he buried the Body of Christ taken from the Cross.

Homily on the Disposition of Saint John the Baptist (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 On the Disposition of the Disciples of John the Baptist and of John the Baptist Himself

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on May 8, 1948- Saturday of Bright Week)

"After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized" (John 3:22). He did not baptize Himself, but His disciples baptized. "Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, 'Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified — behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!'" (John 3:23-26).

What were they arguing about? It is not said exactly in the Holy Scriptures, but it is not difficult to guess from the words that followed. The Jews who were baptized by the disciples of Jesus spoke about this to John's disciples, and a dispute arose between them, a dispute about which baptism was more important, more holy. We conclude about this from the words with which John’s disciples addressed their teacher: “He about whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him.”

Homily for the Sunday Before the Elevation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross (Theophanes Kerameus)

 By Theophanes Kerameus (+ 1152)

Come today, O God-loving assembly, let us celebrate the forefeast of the elevation of the life-giving Cross. The divinely-sweet voice of the Gospel echoes in my hearing, which addresses the mystery of the crucifixion, setting as an example the bronze serpent that the Israelites had hung on the wooden staff. And for me the readings become precursors and foretellings of the veneration of the Cross. So let us carefully turn our gaze to the all-illumined words of the Gospel using them as a projection of the royal scepter.

The Lord said: "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." It is good that He said that. Indeed, this Gospel passage, looking to the purpose of the day, suppressed what had preceded it. So when that disciple of the night came to the Lord - you surely understand that I mean the Pharisee Nikodemos - and the Savior taught him about the "born from above", he, because his mind was still possessed by Jewish thickness, automatically came to thoughts of the womb imagining carnal birth. So when the Lord saw him not following Him at the height of this doctrine, He said to him: "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven;" as if to say: You, Nikodemos, are not amenable to heavenly mystagogy and are trying to find some human explanation; but "no one has ascended to heaven" to introduce these things there, or "came down from heaven", except He who came down from heaven and teaches these things there, "the Son of Man who is in heaven".

Homily Three for the Fifth Sunday of Matthew (St. Luke of Simferopol)

"I Am the True Vine"

5th Sunday of Matthew
 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on July 20, 1952)

 

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, calls Himself the Vine, and He calls us all the branches of this vine. Listen further to what He says: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

You understand this, it is quite clear that a branch that has not retained its connection with its vine, of course, cannot bear fruit.