This is how truly awakened people realize themselves, who have sobered up from the drunkenness of worldly and carnal passions and seen themselves humiliated in the mire of sin. Until a person feels this, he lulls himself in the stinking cradle of sin and can neither see the need for faith nor believe. As long as the dog does not feel ashamed of being a dog, he cannot want to become a lion; And until the toad feels disgusted by the stench of its swamp, it cannot want to get up and fly after the eagle. The unfortunate woman from the Gospel story deeply felt the powerlessness of the pagan world, its humiliation, its impurity, filth, pus, and the shame of its entire existence. She yearned for something more powerful, brighter, and purer. And what she yearned for was suddenly revealed to her in Christ, and moreover in the highest measure and in the greatest splendor. Therefore she does not depart from Him; therefore she humbles herself to His words, because she belongs to the pack of dogs. Not only does she humble herself, but she admits it herself! But, feeling the unworthiness of her origin, she asks for at least a crumb of the bread of Life sent by God to Israel. This bread is Christ, and the crumbs are at least His smallest mercy. Hungry dogs, who do not even have crumbs, will be satisfied with crumbs.

Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman! great is thy faith; let it be done to you according to your desire. And her daughter was healed in that hour. Only when the matter had reached its climax did the Lord exclaim. Even if this woman had been Abraham's own daughter, she could not have manifested her faith more clearly than she did. Those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, have seen and heard. There was no need to wait any longer. Even Judas the traitor could see the great faith of the Canaanite woman. And Peter of little faith. And the doubting Thomas. The Lord did not utter such praise to any of His apostles. To which of them did He say, "Great is thy faith?" On the contrary, He once cried out to all of them: "Ye of little faith! And is it only once? Did He not reproach them, and once numbered them among an unfaithful and perverse generation (Matt. 17:17)? For this reason He brought them into the borders of Canaan, so that through the faith of this pagan woman, who knew neither the law nor the prophets, He might teach them great faith and show them the great power of faith. The Lord gradually taught His disciples in the school of faith. By this event in the land of the heathen He gave them a good lesson and thereby perfected their education. Look at the faith of this woman, who did not know anything true about this world and life in her own way! Which was taught that the sun, moon, animals and stones are gods! Who was born and lived in the midst of darkness, ignorance and shame. Who, finally, belonged to the evil tribe of the Canaanites, who expelled God from the Promised Land to make room for the people of Judah - once His chosen people. Truly, there is much that is instructive, there are many reasons to meditate on the ways of the Lord, and there are many reasons for the apostles and their people to be ashamed and repent.

The Apostles understood and assimilated this lesson, if not immediately, then later, were confirmed in the faith, sowed the faith of Christ throughout the whole world, laid down their lives and were glorified for this almighty faith. But have we understood and learned this lesson? Now the Church of Christ in the world is the chosen people of God, a new kingdom and a new priesthood. Look, then, in what contempt our Lord Jesus Christ is among the Christian nations! Look how baptized people have become not only a generation of little faith, but also an unfaithful and corrupt generation! How they believe in anything, more than in the Saviour, and seek support and help in their lives in the blind and deaf objects and elements around them more than in our Almighty Lord Jesus Christ! How terribly they have punished themselves for this, for they have become despondent and embittered, weak and miserable! Such were the Jews at the time of Christ's coming to earth. The Christian nations hold the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, but today they do not enter this Kingdom much, and at the same time they do not allow those who want to enter. For in the eyes of non-Christian peoples they behave worse, more maliciously, more selfishly, and more earthly than those peoples themselves. In this way they repel non-Christian nations from Christ and prevent them from entering the Kingdom for which these peoples yearn. Only crumbs fall from the royal table of Christ to these peoples, and they gather and consume these crumbs. But how can they, the pagans, be satisfied, if the Europeans and Americans, who sit at the royal table as masters, are spiritually poor? Will not the end of God's long-suffering come soon? Will not the Lord soon reject those who reject Him, as He has already done once, and will He not pronounce the elect to be the unelected, and the unelect to be chosen, the blessed to be cursed, and the damned to be blessed?

But what is left for us to do in this godless generation? For if it is God's will to change one election and replace it with another, if it is in His holy will to take away the kingdom from the Christian nations and to give it to others, if there is a punishment for sins at hand, yet with the rejection of Christian nations all Christians will not be rejected, just as with the rejection of the Jewish people all the Jews were not rejected. Those Jews who recognized Christ after the fall of Jerusalem were saved, as were those who recognized Him during His earthly life. For many Jews were baptized even later, and some of them became great saints of the Church of God. And those of them who turn to Christ today are saved, just as many of their forefathers were saved before the rejection and change of chosenness. For states are not so important to God as people; and nations are not as important to God as the salvation of individual living souls. Therefore, we should not be afraid and say: "If today's Christian states and peoples perish, then we will all perish." May what is destined to happen to states and peoples be done - not a single believer in the Lord will ever perish. There was only one believer with God in Sodom, the righteous Lot, and he alone was saved by Him when He allowed Sodom to perish.

So let us take as an example the prayerful constancy and great faith of the Canaanite woman, and let us not weaken in spirit for a single moment. Let us believe with constancy, constantly taking care that the fire of our faith does not go out. Let us constantly lift up our prayers to the Living God, both for ourselves and for the entire Church of God and for the entire human race. And faith – faith alone – will give strength to our soul and dispel in it all fear and all doubt, and prayer will clear our spirit and fill us with joyful hope, sound thoughts and ardent love. May our merciful and loving Lord Jesus Christ strengthen our faith and hear our prayer, to Whom is due honor and glory, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, One-in-Essence and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Rich Catch of Fish

Luke, 17 rec., 5:1-11.

God is the giver of all good gifts. And every gift of God is so perfect that it makes people wonder. A miracle and nothing else is the gift of God, which people are amazed at. And people are amazed at the gifts of God because of the perfection of these gifts. If people were paradisiacal pure and sinless, they would not wait until God resurrects the dead, or multiplies the loaves, or fills the nets with fish, in order to exclaim: "Here is a miracle!"; but of every thing created by God, of every hour and every breath of one's life, they would say: "This is a miracle!" In order that man may not become completely dull from this habit, wither, and become brutal, God, in His mercy to sick humanity, adds to His innumerable miracles, if only to awaken man and sober him up, freeing him from the gloomy soul-destroying habit of miracles as non-miracles.

With each of His miracles, God wishes, first, to remind people that He watches vigilantly over the world, wisely governing it according to His almighty will; and, secondly, that people can do nothing good without Him.

No work without God's help is successful. No sowing without God's blessing brings a harvest. All human wisdom, directed against God's law, is incapable of bringing good by itself, not even with a grain of mustard seed. If for some time it seems that it brings good, it is clear that it is not it that brings good, but the mercy of God, which for some time does not distance itself from the most fierce opponents of God. For God loves mankind and does not execute immediately, but endures for a long time and waits for repentance. For He wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth.

A person deceived by the habit of this world sometimes thinks that he can do something good without God, and even contrary to God and God's law. Sometimes, in such an infatuation, he thinks that by himself he can become good, or rich, or wise, or famous. But this infatuation either quickly disappoints him, makes him wise and returns him to God sober, or carries him in the muddy stream of the world until he completely loses his human dignity and completely surrenders, like a shadow, into the hands of invisible evil forces. And he who looks at the world as a trembling miracle of God, and at himself as a miracle of miracles, constantly explores the ways of Providence along the bends of this boundless and amazing series of miracles. Only such a person can say, like the Apostle Paul: I planted, Apollos watered, but God grew; therefore he who plants and waters is nothing, but God who grows all things (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). A similar idea is expressed by a proverb that exists among many peoples: Man proposes, and God disposes. Man presupposes by making plans, and God accepts or rejects these plans. Man proposes thoughts, words, and works for consideration, and God approves them or does not approve them. What does God affirm? That which is His, that which is of Him. Everything that is not His, that is not of Him, and that is not like Him, God rejects. If the Lord does not build a house, those who build it labor in vain. If architects build in the name of God, they will build a palace, even if their hands are weak and their means are scarce. But if the architects build in their own name, against the will of God, their work will crumble, as the tower of Babel crumbled.

In the course of history, it was not only the Tower of Babel that was destroyed, but numerous similar towers, which were built by individual world conquerors, wishing to gather all peoples under one roof - under their own - and under one hand - under their own. The innumerable towers of wealth, glory and greatness, which were built by individual people, wishing to take possession of God's creations - things or people - and become little gods - crumbled to dust. But what the apostles, hierarchs and other saints of God had built up did not crumble. Numerous kingdoms of men, created by human vanity, have fallen apart and disappeared like shadows, but the Apostolic Church stands today, and will stand unbending on the graves of many of today's kingdoms. The palaces of the Roman Caesars, who fought against the Church, lie in ruins, while the caves and underground catacombs of Christianity exist to this day.

There is no such force that could destroy God's work. Godless palaces and cities are crumbling, but the tabernacle of God stands. That which God holds with His finger stands firmer than that which props up the whole world with its backs. So that no flesh should boast before God (1 Corinthians 1:29)! For all flesh is like grass waiting for its days to expire and turn to dust. May the Almighty Lord also preserve us from thinking that we can achieve anything good without His help and His blessing! Let today's Gospel serve as an admonition to us, so that such a vain thought will never even be conceived in our souls. For today's Gospel reading says that all human labor is in vain if God does not help. As long as people, the apostles of Christ, were fishing themselves, they caught nothing; and when Christ commanded them to cast their nets into the sea once more, so many fish fell into them that they almost broke through. But this is how the whole story sounds:

At the time of it, when the people were crowding to Him to hear the word of God, and He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, He saw two boats standing on the lake; and the fishermen came out of them and washed their nets. Entering one boat, which was Simonov's, he asked him to sail a little from the shore and, sitting down, taught the people from the boat. When a huge crowd gathered to hear the word of God from the lips of Christ, He could not have found a better place than one of the fishing boats, so that all could see and hear Him. And here, on the shore, there were two boats, and the fishermen were busy washing their nets. These boats are the most common fishing boats with sails, which are still used today on the Lake of Gennesaret. The boat into which the Lord entered belonged to the fisherman Simon, the future Apostle Peter. So the Lord asked Simon to sail a little away from the shore, and when Simon did so, the Savior sat down and began to teach the people.