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.

It would seem that such eradication: the Teacher is killed, the apologists-apostles are killed, the martyrs are killed, everyone is destroyed – everyone should be afraid. But no, Christians have conquered the whole world. How can this be? Only in a miraculous way. Take the history of our native fatherland – starting from 1917, the faith began to be destroyed in Russia: metropolitans, junior bishops, priests were shot, monks were dispersed, imprisoned, churches were blown up. Emelyan of Yaroslavl announced a five-year period of atheism — that by the year 1941 we would have no faith. Indeed, only three bishops remained at large, there were very few Orthodox priests, there were mainly renovationist, schismatic parishes, where people did not go, they said: do not go there, these are priests who have sold out. And the Bolsheviks thought: that's it, faith will be eradicated. No, nothing worked. As soon as there was a relaxation during the war, the people immediately filled the churches again.

And now what do we see? None of us fought for the faith, we did not beat our chests with our fists, we did not defend any truth, we did not write letters, we did not organize demonstrations, we did not strike, and now the Church won again. Churches are opened by the thousands, people are baptized. Now even the sworn enemies of the Church are afraid to say aloud openly that the Church is bad, this is obscurantism, as they used to say. Why? Yes, people will tear them apart, because the Church is the only force that has resisted this satanic evil, this terrible demonism, the rampant devil for seventy-two years. There is no one, everyone is exterminated, everything is over in this country – only the Church stands and stands. She shrinks, shrinks, then sighs deeply again; At one moment it seems that it is not there at all, then it flares up again. Invincible in no way. And so the apostles overcame: they believed that the Kingdom of God would come into the hearts of men, and it did.

Many churches are now opening, and the Gospel is sold in any of them. I still can't believe it. Every time I go in and look – there it is, it is, it is written "New Testament". My heart is fluttering, rejoicing, I think: what a miracle is this, where am I, in America, or what? Why does this Gospel stand, as it was allowed? Why are they not afraid of the Gospel now, maybe they think that pornography will prevail? After all, what literature was forbidden to import into our country? At customs, they asked: is there a Bible, pornography? But this was impossible. And now, if you can use the Bible, you can also use pornography. And they think that pornography will overwhelm them. Yes, many will be overwhelmed, many will drown in this fornication. But many will turn to cleanliness.

And in order for the preaching of the Kingdom of God to be more successful, how can we serve this? Just like the apostles. Each of us is called to the apostleship, but not by word. In order to preach by word, you need a special charisma, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is given with the laying on of hands of the priesthood. Most members of the Church do not have such charisma, but we are all called, we are all disciples of Christ – and we must preach with our love, with goodness. We must be, as the Lord commanded us, lambs among wolves. Let them deceive us, let them torment us, trample on us, let them spit at us, let them kill us, but we must not lose the most important thing – the good in our hearts, because we have the source of this good. It is good, inexhaustible. That's God. And He cannot be overcome by all the power of satanic evil, which is now descending on our country.