And of course, against such a background, when the whole nation craves only an external miracle, true grace leaves, it hides from people, because a person does not perceive the simplest spiritual things. Take the children. They are told: if you have eaten, wash your plate after yourself. Everyone understands that this is what should be done. And a person understands this, and it is not difficult to do it, but still does not do it. And what if the will of God is really revealed to this person? That is why the Lord commanded: do not cast pearls before swine. Because these pigs will turn around and trample you. That is why the Lord hid the saints from us, that we all turned into pigs, into the very ones about whom we read yesterday in the Gospel. Because our soul is full of all impurity, all kinds of demonic possessions, all kinds of sinful passions. Our fate is only from the steep slope and into the sea, if we do not turn and gradually begin to turn from pigs into people. This is the spiritual task set before us. Therefore, we must strive for this by the mercy of God. Amen.

Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, November 13, 1989

Saturday of the 22nd Week after Pentecost

Today's Gospel tells us how the Lord sent His disciples to preach. They were not yet apostles in their entirety, but the Lord had already given them the grace of God to preach the Kingdom of God, to heal the sick and the demon-possessed, and they dispersed to all corners of Palestine, passing through its cities and villages. The Lord commanded them not to take anything with them: neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money, not even to take two clothes in reserve. In this way He taught them to put all their hope in God: "He who labors is worthy of food," so do not worry about anything, go with God. And they believed Him, and went, and when they returned, He asked them, "Did you have need of anything?" No, they did not. And all subsequent Orthodox Christians who turned from the preaching of the apostles and their disciples, all who managed to put their hope in God, never had need of anything. The Lord always preserved them, as long as they were faithful to Him.

And so the disciples went, healed the sick, cleansed lepers, even raised the dead, preached that the Kingdom of God was at hand, that the Savior had come into the world. The whole environment of the surrounding life was extremely hostile to them, their word was not accepted, so the only thing with which they could break the hearts of people was good. That is why the Lord commanded them to heal the sick: after all, when a person suffers, he has no time for sin, and if you treat him with kindness, and even help him heal from his illness, then he is better disposed to hear. Therefore, according to God's commandment, the apostles treated all those who suffered with love — and the preaching of love, mercy, and goodness gradually crushed the whole world.

What did Jews and pagans do to Christians! The first Christian is Christ Himself. He was crucified. And all the apostles had to sit in prison and be in exile, and all of them, except John the Theologian, ended their lives with a violent death. Then came the martyrs – tens, hundreds of thousands of martyrs suffered for the faith. No matter how Christians were eradicated: they were caught, imprisoned, beaten, and persecuted – they were destroyed in every possible way, on the vine, as they say, and nothing succeeded, good, love still won. And after three hundred years of such preaching – preaching goodness, love, preaching by deeds – the Roman Empire bowed down, fell at the feet of Christ.

The first Christians did not all have the gift of healing, which the Lord gave to the apostles, but all had the gift of love. From the Acts of the Apostles we know that people said: look how they love one another. Indeed, there was such love among Christians that it attracted everyone, even the tormentors. The executioners were usually soldiers, Roman soldiers. And so they began to torture some Christian girl, thinking: now we will quickly break her. And they tried both ways: they burned, and beat, and starved - well, he did not give up. And they looked: in her eyes there was no malice, no hatred, no anger – nothing. Only patience, meekness and humility. And this meekness, humility and love turned the tormentors to God. They thought: what are we doing, why are we torturing such a good person? And they even begged: there is no strength to torture you, you renounce for God's sake. Believe in yourself there in your soul, just do what is supposed to be done, and we will let you go. Some martyrs were even seduced: we will give you a good position, money, we will give you your daughter in marriage, we will cure you, but let's finish this matter as soon as possible. No, they cannot renounce Christ in any way. And this humility, with which the martyrs accepted suffering, turned to faith. Many executioners immediately stood next to them and said: "Let's not torture them anymore, and execute us, and we want to be Christians." They were immediately killed, and they were baptized in their own blood.