THE NINTH EOTHINON GOSPEL

The reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John 20:19-31

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be to you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe.” Eight days later, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, you have believed because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.

THE EPISTLE

The Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy 4:9-15

Timothy, my son, the saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, Who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the council of elders laid their hands upon you. Practice these duties; devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress.

THE GOSPEL

The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke 19:1-10

At that time, Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see Who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus, for He was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”

ORTHROS

RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION

When Mary stood at Thy grave, looking for Thy sacred body, angelic powers shone above Thy revered tomb; and the soldiers who were to keep guard became as dead men. Thou led Hades captive and wast not tempted thereby. Thou didst meet the Virgin and didst give life to the world, O Thou, Who art risen from the dead, O Lord, glory to Thee.

RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. When Mary stood at Thy grave, looking for Thy sacred body, angelic powers shone above Thy revered tomb; and the soldiers who were to keep guard became as dead men. Thou led Hades captive and wast not tempted thereby. Thou didst meet the Virgin and didst give life to the world, O Thou, Who art risen from the dead, O Lord, glory to Thee.

RESURRECTIONAL THEOTOKION

Both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Thou Who didst call Thy Mother blessed of Thine own good will and didst come to Thy passion shining radiantly upon the Cross, desiring to recall Adam and saying unto the angels: Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece of silver which was lost. O our God, Who with wisdom hast ordered all things, glory to Thee.

LITURGY

RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION

When Mary stood at Thy grave, looking for Thy sacred body, angelic powers shone above Thy revered tomb; and the soldiers who were to keep guard became as dead men. Thou led Hades captive and wast not tempted thereby. Thou didst meet the Virgin and didst give life to the world, O Thou, Who art risen from the dead, O Lord, glory to Thee.

THE APOLYTIKON OF THE PROTECTION

Today the Virgin stands in the midst of the Church, and with choirs of Saints she invisibly prays to God for us. Angels and Bishops venerate Her, Apostles and prophets rejoice together, since for our sake she prays to the Eternal God!

KONTAKION OF THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST

Thou, O Christ God, Who by Thy Birth, didst sanctify the Virgin’s womb, and, as is meet, didst bless Simeon’s arms, and didst also come to save us; preserve Thy fold in wars, and confirm them whom Thou didst love, for Thou alone art the Lover of mankind.

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Thirty second Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 19:1-10 

From the Explanation of the Gospel of St. Matthew by Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria

1-10. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief publican, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who He was, and could not for the crowd, because he was of little stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him: for He was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down: for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, He has gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. The Lord seizes the mightiest of the devil’s vessels and destroys his cities. See how the Lord not only makes publicans His disciples, but He even takes prisoner—in order to save him—the chief of publicans, Zacchaeus. No one doubts that a publican is an abomination: how much more so is the chief publican, who is foremost in wickedness? For the publicans derived their living from no other source than the tears of the poor. But even this chief publican is not despised by the Lord. In return only for showing eagerness to see Jesus he receives salvation. He desired to see Jesus, which is why he climbed up into the sycamore tree, but before he had caught sight of Jesus, the Lord had already seen him. In the same manner, the Lord always anticipates us if only He sees that we are willing and eager. When the Lord sees Zacchaeus, He urges him to come down quickly, for He intends to stay at his house. And Zacchaeus was not slow to obey—when Christ commands anything, we must not hesitate—but he came down and received Him joyfully, even though many people murmured. Let us see how Zacchaeus reaped the benefit of Christ’s entrance into his house. He says, The half of my goods I give to the poor. Do you see his fervor? He began to disburse without stint, not giving just a little, but all that he had. Even what he held back, he held back so that he could give to those whom he had wronged. From this we learn that there is no benefit at all to a man who gives alms to others of money he has obtained unrighteously and ignores those whom he defrauded in obtaining that money. See what Zacchaeus does with this money: if he defrauded anyone he restores to him fourfold, thus remedying the harm he had done to each man he defrauded. This is true almsgiving. He not only remedies the harm, but he does so with increase. This is in accordance with the law, which commanded that that the thief make fourfold restitution (Ex. 22:1). If we consider well, we see that nothing at all remained of Zacchaeus’ money. Half he gave to the poor, and of the half that remained to him, he gave fourfold to those whom he had wronged. But since the living of the chief publican was derived from fraud and extortion, and since he paid back fourfold all that he had wrongly taken, it follows that he stripped himself of everything he had. From this we see that his thinking goes beyond the prescription of the law, for he had become a disciple of the Gospel, and he loved his neighbor more than himself. And what he promised to do, he did: he did not say, “I shall give half, and I shall restore fourfold,” but instead, Behold, I give and I restore. For he had heard the counsel of Solomon, Say not, Come back another time, tomorrow I will give (Prov. 3:28). Christ proclaims to him the good tidings of his salvation. By this house He means Zacchaeus, for the Lord would not call a building without a soul a son of Abraham. It is clear that that the Lord named this living master of the house a son of Abraham, because Zacchaeus was like the patriarch in two respects: he believed and was counted righteous by faith, and with money he was magnanimous and generous to the poor. See that the Lord sys that Zacchaeus is now a son of Abraham, and that in his present behavior the Lord sees the likeness to Abraham. The Lord did not say that Zacchaeus had always been a son of Abraham, but that he is now a son of Abraham. Before, when he was a chief publican and and tax collector, he bore no resemblance to that righteous man, and was not his son. To silence those who were complaining that the Lord went to be the guest of a sinful man, He says, The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. This is the explanation of the literal words; but it is easy to understand these things in another sense as well, for moral benefit. Anyone who is chief among many in wickedness is little in spiritual stature, for flesh and spirit are opposites to one another, and for this reason he cannot see Jesus for the crowd. Crowded in by a multitude of passions and worldly affairs, he is not able to see Jesus acting, moving and walking about. Such a man as this cannot recognize Christian acts for what they are— Christ acting and moving in us. But such a man, who never sees Jesus passing by and cannot perceive Christ in Christian acts, will sometimes change from negligence and come to his senses. Then he will climb up to the top of the sycamore-fig, passing by every pleasure and sweetness, as signified by the figs, and counting them as foolish and dead. Becoming higher than he was and making ascents in his heart (Ps. 83:6), he is seen by Jesus and can see Jesus, and the Lord says to him, Make haste, and come down, which means, “Through repentance you have ascended to a higher life; come down now through humility lest pride and high mindedness make you fall. Make haste, and humble yourself. If you humble yourself, I must abide at your house, for it is necessary that I abide in the house of a humble man. Upon whom shall I look, if not upon him who is humble and meek, who trembles at My words? (Is. 66:2) Such a man gives half of his goods to the destitute demons. For our substance is twofold: flesh and spirit. The righteous man imparts all his fleshly substance to the truly poor, the demons who are destitute of everything good. But he does not let go of his spiritual substance, for as the Lord likewise said to the devil concerning Job, Behold, I give into thine hand all that he has, but touch not his soul (Job 1:12). And if he has taken anything from any man by false accusation, he restores it to him fourfold. This suggests that if a man repents and follows a path that is opposite to his former way of wickedness, he heals his former sins through the four virtues (courage, prudence, righteousness, and selfcontrol), and thus receives salvation and is called a son of Abraham. Like Abraham, he also goes out of his land and out of his kinship with his former wickedness and out of the house of his father (Gen. 12:1), meaning, he comes out from his old self and rejects his former condition. He himself was the house of his father, the devil. Therefore, when he went out of the house of his father, that is, when he went out of himself and changed, he found salvation, as did Abraham. 

On Holy Communion Metropolitan of Gortyn and Megalopolis, Ieremias

The Holy Gospel we heard today, my Christian brothers and sisters, tells us, in the form of a parable, about the Supper of Holy Communion. Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. This Supper, which we enjoy at every Divine Liturgy, is called ‘great’ in today’s Gospel. And this Supper really is ‘great, the ‘greatest’, incomparably greater than any other prepared by royalty or magnates, because this Supper of the Church presents us with Christ Himself. His all-holy Body and His spotless Blood. Christ said this clearly when He gave His disciples communion on the evening of Great Thursday: ‘Tale, eat, this is my body’; and ‘All of you drink of this, this is my blood’. And what the priest gives the faithful at communion really is the Body and Blood of Christ, not bread and wine as some ignorant people believe. Of course, to our eyes, it looks as though what we’re partaking of is bread and wine, but in reality, it’s the Body and Blood of Christ. But let’s ask: ‘Why does what we consume at communion appear to be bread and wine, and not Body and Blood, as we believe it to be?’. Listen: if the priest stood at the royal doors holding pieces of meat and blood in the holy chalice, nobody would go to communion, because nobody eats raw meat and drinks fresh blood. People eat bread and drink wine. But Christ really is given to us in what we eat and drink. In the form of bread and wine. Pay careful attention to what I’ve just said, my Christian brothers and sisters. What we take at communion is the real Body and the real Blood of Christ. They don’t symbolize the Body and Blood, they actually are them. ‘This is my body; this is my blood, Christ said. Is. Not symbolizes, but is. If we say that communion symbolizes the Body and Blood but isn’t actually those things, then we’ve become heretic Protestants. Protestants really do believe, erroneously, that Holy Communion symbolizes Christ Himself but is not, in fact, Him. When we partake of Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of our Lord, we’re united to Him. That’s what ‘communion’ means. It means union with what we’ve taken. But now let me tell you something really important. Saint Gregory Palamas and all the holy Fathers say that God can do everything, except one thing: He can’t unite with the impure. The holy fathers tell us that to achieve our union and communion with God, we must first cleanse our heart of our sinful passions. When we take communion without any sense at all of our sinfulness, without sighing over it, then there’s no ‘communion’ with Christ when we ‘take communion’. This is why we need confession before communion; why we need some days of preparation, with fasting and prayer, so that we can take communion, the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, consciously. Of course, whatever we do we’ll never be completely worthy of Holy Communion. Nor is Holy Communion given as a reward for the sanctity of the faithful. When the priest gives communion to one of the faithful, he says, ‘for the forgiveness of your sins’. And we partake of Holy Communion in order to receive the medicine we need for our struggle against our passions. Because without Holy Communion we can’t engage in the struggle. But it also requires spiritual cleansing on our part, insofar as this is possible, if we’re to take Holy Communion. Something else that’s necessary for Holy Communion is the command of the priest: ‘With fear of God, faith and love draw near’. ‘With fear’ means that we ought to have a self-effacing and humble spirit when we come to take Holy Communion. The attitude felt by the Prophet Isaiah when he saw the theophany, he describes in chapter 6 of his book: ‘Woe is me, for I am pricked to the heart’. This is the contrition we should feel when we pray and, even more so, when we take communion. The Hebrew [Masoretic] text, has ‘doomed’ rather than ‘pricked to the heart. Why doomed? He explains: ‘because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, the Lord of hosts’ [Complete Jewish Bible]. This is how we should feel when we take communion. But let’s ask: ‘Why does what we consume at communion appear to be bread and wine, and not Body and Blood, as we believe it to be?’. Listen: if the priest stood at the royal doors holding pieces of meat and blood in the holy chalice, nobody would go to communion, because nobody eats raw meat and drinks fresh blood. People eat bread and drink wine. But Christ really is given to us in what we eat and drink. In the form of bread and wine. Pay careful attention to what I’ve just said, my Christian brothers and sisters. What we take at communion is the real Body and the real Blood of Christ. They don’t symbolize the Body and Blood, they actually are them. ‘This is my body; this is my blood, Christ said. Is. Not symbolizes, but is. If we say that communion symbolizes the Body and Blood but isn’t actually those things, then we’ve become heretic Protestants. Protestants really do believe, erroneously, that Holy Communion symbolizes Christ Himself but is not, in fact, Him. When we partake of Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of our Lord, we’re united to Him. That’s what ‘communion’ means. It means union with what we’ve taken. But now let me tell you something really important. Saint Gregory Palamas and all the holy Fathers say that God can do everything, except one thing: He can’t unite with the impure. The holy fathers tell us that to achieve our union and communion with God, we must first cleanse our heart of our sinful passions. When we take communion without any sense at all of our sinfulness, without sighing over it, then there’s no ‘communion’ with Christ when we ‘take communion’. This is why we need confession before communion; why we need some days of preparation, with fasting and prayer, so that we can take communion, the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, consciously. Of course, whatever we do, we’ll never be completely worthy of Holy Communion. Nor is Holy Communion given as a reward for the sanctity of the faithful. When the priest gives communion to one of the faithful, he says, ‘for the forgiveness of your sins’. And we partake of Holy Communion in order to receive the medicine we need for our struggle against our passions. Because without Holy Communion we couldn’t engage in the struggle. But it also requires spiritual cleansing on our part, insofar as this is possible, if we’re to take Holy Communion. Something else that’s necessary for Holy Communion is the command of the priest: ‘With fear of God, faith and love draw near’. ‘With fear’ means that we ought to have a self-effacing and humble spirit when we come to take Holy Communion. The attitude felt by the Prophet Isaiah when he saw the theophany, he describes in chapter 6 of his book: ‘Woe is me, for I am pricked to the heart’. This is the contrition we should feel when we pray and, even more so, when we take communion. The Hebrew [Masoretic] text, has ‘doomed’ rather than ‘pricked to the heart. Why doomed? He explains: ‘because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, the Lord of hosts’ [Complete Jewish Bible]. This is how we should feel when we take communion. Source: pemptousia.com

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Words of Wisdom

Truth is not a thought, not a word, not a relationship between things, not a law. Truth is a Person. It is a Being which exceeds all beings and gives life to all. If you seek truth with love and for the sake of love, she will reveal the light of His face to you inasmuch as you are able to bear it without being burned. (St. Nicholas of Serbia, Thoughts on Good and Evil) How does God relate to us? God loves us more than a father, mother, friend, or anyone else could love, and even more than we are able to love ourselves. (St. John Chrysostom) 

A certain monk told me that when he was very sick, his mother said to his father, "How our little boy is suffering. I would gladly give myself to be cut up into pieces if that would ease his suffering." Such is the love of God for people. He pitied people so much that he wanted to suffer for them, like their own mother, and even more. But no one can understand this great love without the grace of the Holy Spirit. (St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, IX.10) 

The Lord loves all people, but He loves those who seek Him even more. To his chosen ones the Lord gives such great grace that for love they forsake the whole earth, the whole world, and their souls burn with desire that all people might be saved and see the glory of the Lord. (St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, IX.8) 

How to Come to Know God If a person wants to get an idea about the pyramids of Egypt, he must either trust those who have been in immediate proximity to the pyramids, or he must get next to them himself. There is no third option. In the same way, a person can get an impression of God: He must either trust those who have stood and stand in immediate proximity to God, or he must take pains to come into such proximity himself. (St. Nicholas of Serbia, Thoughts on Good and Evil) As it is impossible to verbally describe the sweetness of honey to one who has never tasted honey, so the goodness of God cannot be clearly communicated by way of teaching if we ourselves are not able to penetrate into the goodness of the Lord by our own experience. (St. Basil the Great, Conversations on the Psalms, 29) 

Many rich and powerful men would pay dearly to see the Lord or His Most Pure Mother, but God does not appear in riches, but in the humble heart...  Every one of the poorest men can be humble and come to know God. It needs neither money nor reputation to come to know God, but only humility. (St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, I.11,21) No matter how much we may study, it is not possible to come to know God unless we live according to His commandments, for God is not know by science, but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and learned men came to the belief that God exists, but they did not know God. It is one thing to belief that God exists and another to know Him. If someone has come to know God by the Holy Spirit, his soul will burn with love for God day and night, and his soul cannot be bound to any earthly thing. (St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, VIII.3)

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