A Word for the Second Sunday After Pentecost (9)

In the Gospel read today, beloved brothers and sisters, we hear of the Lord’s calling to the apostolic office of two Galilean fishermen, Simon Peter and Andrew his brother, and two other brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee the fisherman; and then of the Lord’s going about, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom throughout the whole land of Galilee, and healing every sickness and every infirmity among the people. This brief Gospel reading holds much for our instruction. Most instructive for us is the conduct of the fishermen, who, without contradiction, at once followed after Him at the Savior’s voice, not yet knowing for certain why the Lord was calling them; remarkable in them is the childlike simplicity of disposition and faith, and their indifference to their accustomed and attractive trade of fishing and to the tools of that trade; remarkable is the masterful power in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, who subdues simple hearts to Himself for their whole life. But especially instructive for us is the boundless condescension, toward us, mere men, of the Lord of glory, the Creator of heaven and earth, beginningless, almighty, dwelling in unapproachable light: He, the eternal King of the Angels and of all creatures, having taken the form of a servant, goes from city to city, from village to village, wearies His most pure feet every day, teaches the ignorant and those who err, preaches to all the Gospel of the Kingdom, the reconciliation of men with God and the eternal blessedness prepared in the heavens for those who love God; heals every sickness and infirmity among the people, does not shun those possessed by unclean and contagious diseases; from early morning to late evening countless crowds of people surround Him, press upon Him, crush Him, assail Him: and He deals with all of them gently and patiently, teaching accessibly, humbly, lovingly, and with authority, forgetting food and rest. What condescension! What love! What patience! What a lesson for us pastors, so lazy in teaching and instruction, so impatient and irritable in serving the spiritual and bodily needs of our lesser brethren, so careless of the glory of God and of the salvation of the immortal souls of men, endowed with reason and free will! And what a lesson for you too, brothers and sisters, in this daily, all-day-long going about of the Lord through cities and villages for the salvation of people, for their instruction in the saving truth, and for the healing of their infirmities! Do you value your own soul’s salvation as our Lord valued it, and values it still, always? Do you care for your immortal souls as Jesus Christ cared for them, and unceasingly cares for them still—He who did not spare His own life for us, and shed, in fearsome torments, all His blood for us? Do you picture to yourselves the whole horror of the eternal justice of God, which all of us would undoubtedly have had to undergo, and those unbearable, eternal torments into which we would all have been plunged, had not His Only-Begotten Son become an Intercessor for us before His heavenly Father, had He not become, for us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? Do you picture to yourselves how repugnant to God, and how ruinous to us, is the abomination of sin in all its countless forms and manifestations; how absurd, how mad, how insolent is this diabolical invention, that is, sin, which has perverted everything, turned it upside down, in the moral world, and disfigured beyond recognition the beautiful creation of God—man? No, we have to this day still been unwilling, have neglected, have been too lazy, to learn well that sin is truly this—so vile, so repugnant, so mad, so absurd, so all-destroying; otherwise we would not befriend it, would not warm this serpent in our own bosom, though it stings us, torments us, kills our souls. Be ashamed, then, at last, O man, at such a wondrous, ineffable condescension of God for your salvation! Picture to yourself how the pre-eternal Son of God Himself, in the flesh, walked the earth from city to city, from village to village, for our salvation, to teach people the commandments of God and a holy, God-pleasing life, and in order to help them, to heal them, to comfort them, to turn them onto the path leading to eternal life—how He chose for Himself helpers, disciples, or apostles, Himself carefully, with love and meekness, taught them every truth, worked miracles, healed every sickness, cast out demons, raised the dead, cleansed lepers—how, on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead and the tenth from His ascension into heaven, He sent down to them, from God the Father, the Holy Spirit, who made them wise and sanctified them and made them fiery, and made them, from earthly, heavenly—ardently loving God and all people, and ready for every labor and sorrow for the sake of their eternal salvation; taught them every mystery of the Kingdom of God, and sent them out to preach the Gospel, giving them power to work every kind of miracle. Be zealous, beloved, yourself, for your own salvation; awaken, arise from the sleep of sin; not today, but tomorrow, or the day after, or in a year, or after an even longer time, there awaits you too your appointed lot—death, and right after it, judgment; provide yourself with the oil of good deeds, prepare a good answer for the righteous Judge, who judges with just measures the whole earth (Ps 9:9). Examine yourself: are you ready? Behold, for you, for your salvation, the Lord has done everything: what have you done? Answer. But you are silent, and answer nothing. You are, evidently, not ready: your whole time has been spent on vanity, on trifles, on passions, on whims. Listen, brother, sister: let me remind you once more what the Lord has done for your salvation: He has poured out a whole sea of saving grace in His Church—from the time when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles—that is, He has given you all the divine powers for life and godliness (2Pet 1:3), that you might be saved by every means; for you, the grace of baptism; for you, adoption, or your being made a son of God—you, a criminal creature; for you, the seal of the Holy Spirit, that is, the Mystery of Chrismation; for you, the grace of repentance, of the forgiveness and absolution of your sins; for you—O wonder of wonders! — the most pure Body and the most pure Blood of the Lord Himself, for the remission of your sins and unto eternal life; for you, the Church—this heavenly school and heavenly infirmary, this house of spiritual food, and house of comfort, and temple of praise and prayer to the Triune Godhead, who gives us life and has mercy on us, and a treasury of every gift of grace. What are you doing for your own salvation? Let me ask you once more: tell me, in conscience, are you doing anything at all? Are you not, with your whole heart and your whole being, soul and body, given over to the world and its sinful customs? Have you not long since quenched in yourself the grace of the Holy Spirit; have you not debased yourself to the level of a dumb beast, and are you not led only by animal passions, as a captive and a slave—for it is said: man, being in honor, did not understand; he is compared to the senseless beasts, and has become like them (Ps 48:13,21).

Brother and sister! Let us hasten to devote what time remains to the works of our own salvation. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus Christ preached and to which He still calls all men to this day, is worth every effort to attain it. The first-fruits of this Kingdom, which we ourselves sometimes feel even here, on earth—during, for instance, sincere prayer, or contemplation of God, or tearful repentance, or when we do good deeds—are exceedingly sweet; how sweet, then, must be the Kingdom of Heaven itself, there in heaven? Let us all, then, attain the Kingdom of God. Amen.