The Lord warned the Apostles about how difficult this decisive moment would be, saying: "And a man's enemies are his own household, that is, his relatives, who more than anyone else in the world will hinder him from following Christ and will condemn him more than anyone else if he goes. For, truly, it is not our enemies who bind us to this world, but our friends, not strangers, but relatives. In order to ease this separation from the family and to calm the consciences of those who would like to leave everything that is theirs for Him, the Lord tells them in advance that they should not worry about anything, just as small birds do not care. Let His followers not care about who will feed and clothe their relatives in their absence. They will be fed and clothed by the One Who feeds and clothes even small birds. Without the will and knowledge of the Heavenly Father, not one of the little birds will fall to the ground. It is as if the Lord wants to say: nothing can happen to your relatives, as well as to you, without the will and knowledge of the Heavenly Father. Your relatives, like you, have all the hairs on their heads numbered. Therefore leave them and follow me. For even when you are with them, it is not you who care about them, but God. In the same way, God will take care of them without you.

But father and mother, son and daughter also have an inner meaning here. By father and mother are also meant our teachers and spiritual leaders, who, by their false teaching, impart to us a spirit contrary to Christ and the Gospel. They are our spiritual parents. They teach us earthly wisdom, which serves the body more than the soul, and which, by slavishly binding us to the earth, separates us from Christ. Not yet knowing Christ, we look upon these spiritual parents of ours as idols; and whether we listen to them in person or read their books, we give them our hearts, our love, our reverence, our glory and worship. Whoever loves them more than Christ is not worthy of Christ.

By sons and daughters we must understand, in the inner sense, our deeds, our realizations, our achievements, what we have built, written, and everything else that we are proud of as the fruit of our minds or our hands. In these fruits are our heart, our love, our pride. But that all these achievements of ours and all our deeds are next to Christ? Clouds of smoke next to the sun! The dust of time next to the marble of eternity! Therefore, whoever loves them more than Christ is not worthy of Christ.

Then the Lord says: "And whoever does not take up his cross and follows Me, he is not worthy of Me." By the cross we must understand, first, that which follows by itself from the preceding words, that is, parting from father and mother, son and daughter, from one's relatives, from one's friends and teachers, and from one's accomplishments. The cross is pain, and parting is pain.

Further, the cross should be understood as all the sufferings, torments and sorrows that the follower of Christ will encounter on his path. But all this is necessary for true love, in order to inflame it even more; all this is absolutely necessary, as a bitter medicine for a sick person who wants to recover. Every follower of Christ will encounter on his path various sufferings, torments and sorrows, which is why the crosses are different. For this reason the Lord commands everyone to take up his cross.

Further, the cross must be understood not only as suffering and pain that come to man from without, but also as inner suffering and pain at parting with oneself, with one's old man, with one's sinful habits and passions, with one's flesh. This is one of the heaviest crosses, and it is impossible to bear it without God's help and man's greatest love for Christ. But this cross must inevitably be taken upon oneself. For the Lord says further: He who saves his life will lose it; but he who loses his life for my sake shall save it. That is: whoever carefully guards his old soul, all stained with sins and dusted with passions, will undoubtedly lose it, for nothing dirty and unclean will appear before the face of God. And whoever loses his old soul, who renounces it, who rejects it for Christ's sake, that is, for the sake of renewal and rebirth, for the sake of a new man and a new soul, he will save it, that is, he will preserve this new soul, more radiant and richer, a hundredfold more radiant and richer; just as a hundred times more will be received by the one who leaves a natural father or mother, brothers or sisters, wife or children.

Further, the cross should be understood as the Precious Cross of Christ, Honorable and Life-giving. We do not abandon one earthly cross, and we do not leave one sorrow in order to replace it with another, similar sorrow. We take upon ourselves the Cross of Christ, that is, sorrows, pain, and sufferings for the sake of cleansing from sins, for the renewal of the soul, and for the sake of eternal life. Here is what the Apostle Paul says about the Cross of the Lord: "But I will not boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). For the one who bears the Cross of Christ, the world is dead, just as he himself is dead to the world - dead to the world, but alive to God. That this Cross is a temptation for some, and madness for others, is not surprising, for people with an old, sinful soul, enslaved by this world and the lusts of the flesh, cannot understand any sufferings, except for those that a person endures for the sake of some earthly gain, health or wealth, honor or glory. Meanwhile, the Cross of Christ signifies suffering and pain endured for the sake of health and spiritual riches, and for the sake of the honor and glory of Christ, the honor and glory of Him Who is the King of the new Kingdom and the only Love of those who confess Him.

Then Peter answered and said to him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed you; What will happen to us? The Apostle Peter posed this question when the Lord advised a rich young man, seeking eternal life, to go, sell his possessions and distribute them to the poor, and then follow Him; and when the young man departed with sorrow, because he had a great possessions. Then Peter asked the above question, which the Church has combined with today's Gospel reading because of the close spiritual connection between the two. St. Peter asks on behalf of all the apostles what will happen to them. Behold, they left everything, their homes, their relatives, and their occupations, and followed Him.

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye that have followed me, in the future, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. To Peter's question, the Lord answers all the Apostles: He told them, but here, among them, is Judas the traitor. Will he also sit on the throne? At that time, Judas had not yet betrayed Christ, although perhaps betrayal had already begun in his heart. Knowing in advance that Judas would betray Him, the Lord speaks conditionally and cautiously. Look: Christ did not say, "You all," but you who followed Me. These words exclude Judas the traitor, for he only went with Christ, but did not follow Christ. Soon he will completely depart from Christ and the apostles, and another will come in his place, and another will sit on his throne.

The Lord promises His faithful apostles a great reward. They will be judges of all the people of Israel, not of all mankind - for He Himself will be the only Judge of all mankind - but of the people of Israel, from whom they came. This people will condemn the Apostles in this life, but the Apostles will be their judges at the Last Judgment, when all nations and all people will be separated to the right and to the left, and some will be called to eternal bliss, and others to eternal punishment. Then, at this new birth, the twelve apostles will sit on the right side of the Lord on twelve thrones to judge their people, their judges in this life. However, their judgment will not be a court of vengeance, but a court of righteousness.

What the Lord answered to the apostles applies exclusively to the apostles. But to this answer He now adds something that applies to all of His faithful followers of all ages:

And whosoever shall forsake houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life. Did not the apostles and saints of God receive a hundredfold more in this world than they left for the sake of the name of Christ? Are not hundreds and hundreds of temples rising up all over the globe bearing their names? Do not hundreds, but hundreds of millions of husbands and wives call them their spiritual fathers and spiritual brethren? God's promise to Abraham was fulfilled literally upon the saints of God: their spiritual seed truly became as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the seashore (Gen. 22:17).

The spiritual seed is more numerous than the bodily seed. Spiritual profit is greater than bodily profit. For this reason the Lord adds that they all inherit, in addition, eternal life.

In the inner sense, houses mean an old, sinful soul; brothers and sisters, father, mother and wife signify the earthly attachments of our soul; Children mean our sinful deeds, and the earth means the entire sensual world together with our body. Whoever forsakes all these things for Christ's sake will receive a hundredfold more and better than he had. And, moreover, he inherits eternal life.