CONVERSATION

ST. NICHOLAS OF SERBIA (VELIMIROVIĆ)

en Saint Nikolay Serbsky (Velimirović) calibre 0.7.53, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 2.4.2011 61b86554-21ad-4da7-b424-24bccfa1697c 1.0

CONVERSATION

First Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints. The Gospel of Following Christ

Matt. 38 rec., 10:32-38; 19:27-30.

Does the householder send a servant to fetch the sheep without feeding him?

Does a father send his son to plough without a plough and oxen?

Does a voivode send a warrior into battle unarmed?

He doesn't.

And God does not send into this world His servants, His sons, His soldiers, without feeding them, providing for them, and arming them. People are not wiser or merciful than God - far from it! And if they also know how to supply their messengers with the necessities of life, God will be all the more able to provide His own.

The fact that God abundantly bestows His grace on those who do His work is most evident from the example of the holy apostles. That twelve men, of humble birth and trade, without army and wealth, without earthly splendor and strength, were able to leave their homes and relatives and go into the world to preach the Gospel of Christ, that is, something entirely new and contrary to all that the world had hitherto considered true and good, cannot be explained by anything but God's help.

Having stirred up the whole world with an unheard-of sermon about the risen Christ, about God who appeared to people in the flesh and ascended again into His Heavenly Kingdom, and having sown the seed of a new faith, a new life, a new creation, they departed from this world. But it was then that the earth began to ignite from them: from their seed, from their words, from the footprints of their feet. The peoples who persecuted them were scattered throughout the world; the empires that resisted them fell into the dust exhausted; the houses that did not accept them turned into ruins; The nobles and sages who tortured them experienced shame and despair and died a most horrible death. And their seed sprang up and blossomed; The Church was built from their blood, on the ruins of violent and deceitful human creations; those who received them were glorified; those who believed them and followed them were saved. Oh, how abundantly the Lord nourishes His messengers! How luxuriously He endows His faithful sons! How, like a good commander, He arms His soldiers!

First the Lord supplies and equips His faithful, and then sends them to labor and struggle. That this is so was also shown by Christ during His earthly life, and the history of the Church after the descent of the Holy Spirit also showed. The Gospel says that Christ, having called His disciples, gave them power over unclean spirits in order to cast them out and heal every disease and every infirmity. And he commanded them to go and preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and he said, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give. Thus, He first gave them authority, might, and power, and then sent them to work. For such a great work, the apostles had to receive the greatest power. And that they truly received it is evident from the words of the Savior Himself: they received it freely. And in order to show the Apostles how great and invincible is this Divine power, which will always be with them, the Lord commands them to go to their work without worries, not taking with them either gold, or silver, or food, or two garments, or bags, or shoes; not to be angry if someone does not accept them; not to think in advance what to say in judgment seats. And only after giving them the necessary strength and explaining that this strength is sufficient for all the needs and all the sorrows in life, He openly enumerated all the sorrows and sufferings that awaited them. Behold, I send you forth as sheep among wolves. But after this he again encourages them: "And with you the hairs of your head are all numbered; Do not be afraid. The power of God helps even small birds, and it will help you all the more! And, finally, the Lord concludes with decisive words, which make up today's Gospel reading and clearly show what awaits those who have used God's power given to them for good, and what awaits those who have either not used it in any way, or have attempted to use it for evil:

Whosoever therefore confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. The first is the reward of the good and faithful warrior who has endured and won; the second is a punishment for the evil and cunning warrior who hesitated, doubted and surrendered to the enemy. Can there be a greater reward for a person than that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Kingdom of Heaven, before the Heavenly Father and the countless host of angels, confesses him to be His own? He will inscribe it in the eternal Book of Life; crown him with unspeakable glory and place him at His right hand in the immortal heavenly cathedral? And is there a greater punishment for a man than that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself will deny him, saying to him before the assembly of angels and all nations and before the Heavenly Father: "I do not know you; you are not of mine; you are not in the Book of Life; And the Apostle Paul says that it is imperative to openly acknowledge and confess the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as to believe in Him with your heart: For if you confess Jesus to be Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, because with your heart they believe unto righteousness, but with the mouth they confess unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10). This means that we must confess our Lord Jesus Christ both in soul and body. For man consists of soul and body, and therefore it is necessary that the whole man should confess Him Who came to save the whole man.

Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Such amazing words can only be said to you by Him to Whom you owe your life more than to your earthly father and mother. Only He who loves you more than father and mother dares to say so; He Who loves both your son and your daughter more than you know how to love them. Your father and mother begat you only for this momentary life, but He begat you into eternal life; Your father and mother gave birth to you in torment and humiliation, but He gives birth to you for eternal joy and eternal glory. And besides, father and mother take from Him to give you. Your father and mother prepare your food, and He gives you breath. What is more important: food or breath? Father and mother cut your clothes, but He cut your heart. What is more needed: clothes or a heart? He brought you into this world, father and mother are the gates through which He led you. Who has greater merit, the one who brought you to a city, or the gate through which you entered that city?

Of course, the Lord does not exclude the love for parents and children with which we should treat all our neighbors and about which one of the two main commandments of Christ tells us. And the Lord Himself showed His love for His Most-Pure Mother even on the Cross, pointing to Her His beloved Apostle John as a son in His place. But He says this in connection with the persecutions and sufferings that await His apostles. Father and mother will be afraid; the son and daughter will be afraid; and they will say to the Apostle of Christ: "Deny Christ and live quietly with us, and do not depart from your house. Live like all people; Give up your new faith! It can separate you from us and bring you to the chopping block. And what will we do then? They can torture us with hunger and beatings; they can execute us. Did we give birth to you for this reason, - the father and mother will say, - in order to endure grief in old age because of you? To be mocked by your peers, to be despised and persecuted, and in the end, perhaps, killed? If you love us, leave Christ and live here with us, peacefully and calmly." And so, at such a decisive moment, the Apostle will have to decide: who hinders him and whom does he love more - Christ or his parents? His entire eternity, and the eternity of his family, depends on the decision to do so. Never in life can a man be placed at a more terrible crossroads; and he cannot walk with one foot on one path, and with the other on the other. A person cannot divide his heart at such a moment: he is obliged to give it either to one or the other party. By giving his heart to Christ, he can, in addition to himself, save his relatives as well; but by giving his heart to father and mother, son and daughter, he will inevitably destroy both himself and them. For he has renounced Christ before men, and Christ will also renounce him at the Last Judgment before the Heavenly Father and before all the host of angels and saints. The Monk Isidore Pelusiot wrote to the city governor Philaeus, who grieved, not having acquired in society the glory he desired: "Glory in this life is no more significant than a spider's web and no more insignificant than a dream; Therefore, raise your mind to the original, and you will easily calm the sorrow of the soul. Whoever desires to have both glory cannot attain both. It is possible to attain both when we love not two, but one, the heavenly one. Therefore, if you desire glory, love the glory of God (heavenly), and this is often followed by earthly glory" (Letters, 5:152).

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.