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.

The Lord uses the number one hundred, which expresses the fullness of all numbers, in order to denote the fullness of the gifts that the faithful will receive. Not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of husbands and wives left everything - and received everything. This is what today's Week - the Sunday of All Saints - is dedicated to. Some saints have their own special days of celebration in the year. But these are only the most famous. Besides them, however, there are still a great number of God-pleasers who have remained hidden to human eyes, but who are no less known to the Living and Omniscient God. They constitute the victorious, or triumphant, Church of Christ and are in the closest connection with us, who make up the militant, fighting Church on earth. Through them the Lord shines, as the sun shines through the stars, for they are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Ephesians 5:30). They are alive, strong and close to God. But they are just as close to us. They constantly gaze upon the life of the Church of God on earth; they watch over us from birth to death; they hear our prayers, know our sorrows, help us with their strength and their prayers, which, like the smoke of incense, ascend through the high mountains of angels to the throne of God.

Even today they help us to be saved; for there is neither selfishness nor envy in them: it is a joy for them that as many husbands and women as possible should be saved and enter into the same glory as they are. They all conquered by faith. All of them extinguished the power of fire, which in the form of passions burns weak human beings. Many of them experienced mockery and beatings, as well as chains and prison, and were stoned. Many of them, of whom the whole world was not worthy, wandered, enduring deficiencies, sorrows, embitterment, in deserts and mountains, in caves and gorges of the earth. But this life is a practical test, and rewards are given in the other world. They passed this exam brilliantly and now help us too, so that we too may not be ashamed, but pass it, so that we may be like them in the Kingdom of God. Truly wondrous and wondrous is God in His saints!

The Church dedicated this Sunday to All Saints deliberately, as the first after the celebration of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, for our enlightenment. So that we may understand from this that all the saints, like the apostles, showed themselves to be the greatest heroes in the history of the human race, not so much because of their own strength, but with the help of the grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit. The bread of God nourished them, the Providence of God provided for them, and the weapons of God armed them. Therefore, they could withstand the struggle, endure everything and conquer everything.

St. Macarius the Great, on the basis of his own experience, teaches that first a person himself must practice virtue for a long time, with great labor and self-compulsion, and "at last the Lord comes, dwells in him, and he abides in the Lord, and the Lord Himself effortlessly creates His own commandments in him, fulfilling his spiritual fruit" (Discourse 19). Both the example of the apostles and the example of all the saints clearly reveals to us the great and sweet truth that God does not send His servants into the field without food, His messengers into the field without equipment, His soldiers into battle without weapons. Glory and thanksgiving for this to the Most High God, Who glorifies His saints with victories and is glorified in them!

And many will be the first last, and the last first. With these prophetic words, the Lord concludes His speech addressed to the Apostles. Those words have been fulfilled even now, but only at the Last Judgment will they be fulfilled in their entirety. The apostles were considered the last people in Israel, and the Pharisees and hypocrites who persecuted them were the first: we are like dung to the world, like dust, trampled under foot by all until now, writes one of the apostles (1 Corinthians 4:13). But the apostles were the first, and their persecutors were the last, both in heaven and on earth. Judas the traitor was among the first, but because of his apostasy, he became the last. Many saints of God were considered the last, but they became the first, while those who tortured and despised them fell from the first places of honor and glory of this world to the last places before the face of God. And at the Last Judgment everything will be fulfilled, and we will see how many, many who are now considered the first among us will take the last places, while many who now, in this life, consider themselves the last and whom people consider as such, will sit in the first places.

This saying also has its own inner meaning. In each of us there is a struggle between the lower and the higher man. When the low, the vile, the sinful, the terrible reigns in us, then the lower man in us is the first, and the higher is the last. A person confesses his sins, repents, communes of the Living Christ – then the lower man in him is cast down from the first to the last place, and the higher is elevated from the last to the first. And, on the contrary, when the beauty and grace of Christ reigns in us in humility and obedience to the Lord, in faith and good works, then the higher man is the first, and the lower is the last. But it happens, unfortunately, that in such a case a good and pious person becomes overly self-confident, and such self-confidence gives rise to pride, while pride is all other evil, like a ladder by which the lower man crawls to the first place, pushing the higher to the last. And so the first become the last, and the last become the first.

Therefore, it is necessary to be constantly vigilant over oneself and never rely too much on oneself, but to place all one's hope in prayer in the Lord and in His victorious weapon of grace-filled power. I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13), says the Apostle Paul. Let us also say this: we can do all things, O Lord Almighty, through Thee and Thy everlasting power in us. On our own, we can do nothing but sin. We hunger without Thee, our Householder. We are naked without Thee, our Father. We are unarmed and powerless without Thee, our Commander. And with Thee, our victorious Saviour, we possess all things and can do all things. Thanking Thee for everything, we beseech Thee: do not depart from us, and do not forsake us with Thy help until the end of our lives. Glory to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, 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.

The second Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Calling of the Apostles