Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the memory of St. Chariton!

Today we began a new cycle of Sunday Gospel readings from the Gospel according to Luke. Today we read about Christ’s call to Peter to become a permanent disciple and companion, just like we did after Pentecost, when we began reading the Gospel according to Matthew. All three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) tell us about this event, but they don’t fully correspond. There are differences between them.

Matthew and Mark concentrate on that which is most important – that the Apostle Peter, his brother and their friends (Andrew, James and John) leave everything behind and follow Christ. Those things that are of less importance they skip without writing them down. This includes the following details: that Christ first preached before a multitude of people, that they pressed up to Him in such a way that He was forced to get into a boat, that there was a miraculous drawing in of many fish and that Peter was so struck by this miracle that he asked Christ to leave him. The lack of these details does not mean that Matthew and Mark forgot about them or that their Gospels are not as trustworthy as they could be. No, this only shows that they were completely focused on the most important, so that we, the readers, wouldn’t be distracted.

The Holy Apostle Luke takes a different tack. He is more detailed and literal in his retelling of the events. All the details we listed above are found in Luke. It’s true that they somewhat distract us from the heart of the story, but if we keep this central theme in mind and also pay attention to the details, they can bring us spiritual benefit. Since we have already discussed the Apostle Peter and the main theme of this reading in June, let’s turn our attention today to some of these details that are only found in the Gospel of St. Luke and learn from them.

Let’s take note with what zeal the Galileans listened to Christ, how they came closer and closer to Him so as to better hear His preaching. Here Christ does not heal, does not perform miracles, only teaches. People came to learn from Him and demanded nothing more. It would be good for us to have such zeal in the study of Holy Scripture as these people had in listening to our Lord.

We cannot but notice our Saviour in today’s reading. The people were pressing up to Him. This must not have been a very pleasant situation, and, perhaps, it was in some ways even dangerous, but Christ does not stop preaching. He doesn’t run from the crowd which is about to encircle Him. He calmly climbs into a boat from where He can continue to preach in safety. Sometimes it happens that we find ourselves in situations that are unpleasant, even dangerous and we have to decide what we’re going to do to extricate ourselves. Will we behave as Christians or will we forget about our faith and run away from our Christian responsibilities? Christ gives us a fine example of how to act. Although He sometimes leaves the crowds of people following Him so as to pray and spend some quiet time with His disciples, He never declined to meet those people who would find Him and go out to meet Him. Christ acts in a like wise manner here. He finds a way to continue to preach in a difficult situation.

Let us always strive to live as Christians. When a difficult, dangerous or impossible situation presents itself, let us pray to the Lord that He send us a little ship, that is, divine help, so that we can continue to live correctly without any harm coming to us from the temptations surrounding us.

priest Alexis