Instruction for the Second Sunday After Pentecost

Walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus Christ saw two brothers: Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And He says to them: come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they at once left their nets and followed Him (Mt 4:18-20).

The Gospel read today, my brethren, beloved in Christ, relates the calling by Jesus Christ, to the apostolic rank, of two blood brothers, Peter and Andrew, and of two other brothers besides—James and John, whom Jesus Christ afterward surnamed the sons of thunder—their unquestioning following after the Savior, and how the Lord went through the whole land of Galilee preaching the Kingdom of Heaven, healing every sickness and every infirmity among the people (Mt 4:23).

The Lord, my brethren, calls to the apostleship two brothers of one mind and one blood, to depict the character of His future followers, Christians, who all, by the spirit of mutual love, ought to be brothers in Christ — you are all brothers (Mt 23:8), says Jesus Christ to His followers. He calls to the high and greatest labor of the apostleship simple, unlearned men—first, for their simplicity and trustfulness, for their humble, unpretentious, and guileless disposition, for their diligence and patience—and second, in order to show that the planting of faith and of the Church of Christ in the world was not the work of human wisdom and strength, but the work of God, and that no flesh should glory before God (1Cor 1:29), that no man might boast that the Christian faith owes anything to his own wisdom, patience, and labors; God Himself worked upon them the greatest of miracles: He made wise men out of the ignorant, made the timid and fearful courageous and undaunted, made the fleshly spiritual, made the earthly heavenly, made vessels of sin into vessels of righteousness and temples of the Holy Spirit.

So too the Lord can transform us from sinners into righteous men, if we have living faith in the Lord and firmly resolve to love righteousness and hate lawlessness. So the Lord can make a drunkard or a glutton temperate, a lover of money merciful and God-loving, a debauched man chaste, and in general can deliver us easily and swiftly from our sinful habits and passions, if only we ourselves, like the fishermen mentioned today in the Gospel, have faith in the Lord and a firm, unchanging resolve not to follow our own criminal will, but to follow the commands of God, all-wise, holy, and saving. There are very many examples of this in the lives of the saints. Such are: the example of the wise thief, who repented on the cross and inherited paradise; of Mary of Egypt; of Peter the tax collector; and of many others. So then, the Lord called simple people to the apostolic labor, and not the wise and understanding of this age. The holy Apostle Paul says: God chose the unwise of the world, that is, simple and unlearned people, to put the wise to shame, and the weak of the world God chose, to put the strong to shame; and the unimportant of the world and the despised and the things that mean nothing God chose, to abolish the things that mean something—so that no flesh should boast before God; and that, as it is written, the one who boasts should boast in the Lord (1Cor 1:27-29,31). The same Apostle, in his epistle to the Corinthians, quotes the Lord’s words from the prophet Isaiah, concerning the high-minded and erring wisdom of the wise men of this earth: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise men, and the reasoning of the intelligent I will reject (Is 29:14). Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the questioner of this age? Did not God turn the wisdom of this world into madness (Is 33:18, 1Cor 1:19-20)? Indeed, the wise men of this age often despise the holy, unblemished faith of Christ and its guardian, the Holy Church of Christ. What could be expected of them for the faith and the Church? Unless they humble their stubborn reason and submit it to Christ, they can only destroy, not build up and spread the faith. It is remarkable in the highest degree that learned people, the so-called intelligentsia of our day, are infected with unbelief, which is equal to madness, to insanity, just as Scripture itself says, that the wisdom of this world is madness before God (1Cor 3:19); their unbelief comes from their pride, from a learned ignorance that knows much that is empty and does not know the one thing needful; God is against the proud (Jac 4:6).

It is remarkable too that simple, unlearned people, but of sound sense and a good, simple heart, turn out to be far wiser than the clever men of this age, and pleasing to God, because in simplicity of heart, without cunning reasoning, they believe in the faith of God, in the word of God, receiving it with a good and simple heart, striving to fulfill it according to their own strength, with the help of grace. Look, brethren—I will say it to you in the Apostle’s own words: who are you who have come into this temple? Not many of you are wise according to the flesh (that is, learned), not many are mighty (that is, mighty of this world, noble and rich), not many are of noble birth; but the greater part are all simple, unlearned, barely literate, or only literate. So then, my brethren, like the fishermen mentioned today in the Gospel, believe with your whole heart in the Lord and in His Gospel, receive with your whole heart the word of eternal life, justify by your whole life that you are Christians, disciples and followers of Christ; do not forsake the gatherings of the church and the services; read, listen more often to the word of God, grow wise, and be saved. The Gospel of Christ is now accessible to everyone, and always, especially to those who can read, since it has been rendered into the Russian tongue and the book of the Gospel is sold at the very cheapest price. O Lord! enlighten the minds of all with the light of the understanding of Your holy Gospel, teach us to do Your will, save us, and bring us into Your heavenly Kingdom. Amen.