Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christ is Risen!

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord!

Last year in my sermons I tried to concentrate on the Gospel readings. This year, I’d like to focus on the other readings that we hear at the Sunday church services – the readings from the Apostle or Epistle Book. We’re all more-or-less well acquainted with the Gospel, and even if we don’t know it well, we are at least familiar with the different stories. Of course we need to not only know these stories, but to then learn their lessons and apply them to our personal lives. This is a life-long affair, and therefore we could talk about the Gospel until the end of time, but it’s also wrong to ignore the other books of the New Testament.

The Gospel consists of four separate books, and they all describe the same thing – the earthly life of our Saviour and especially everything that is tied to His passions on the Cross and His Resurrection. Unlike the Gospel, the Epistle is composed of twenty-two different books, written by six different authors. All of the books, except for one, are letters, addressed to different people or churches (that is, to different Christian communities, scattered across all of the eastern Mediterranean). Each letter was written to address various concrete problems or questions. The letters of St. Paul are the most ancient Christian written documents (they were written before the Gospels). It is also interesting to note that no one, not even secular scholars, doubt the authenticity of these letters. Although all of this makes them a little bit more difficult to understand thаn the Gospels, they are very lively and extremely interesting. Therefore, let’s not forget the Epistle and, in the course of this new liturgical year, let’s focus our attention on this important and interesting book.

From Pascha until the feast of the Holy Trinity (Pentecost) we read the only book that is not a letter – the Acts of the Apostles. This book is more like the Gospels than the other books of the Epistle. It was written by the evangelist Luke and is in some ways a continuation of his Gospel. From the text of this book we see that the author was an eyewitness of at least some of the recorded events. The goal of this book is to show how Christianity spread from Jerusalem to the main city of the whole world, the capital of the Roman Empire – Rome. The main subject matter of the Acts are the missionary activities and miracles of the two main apostles – Peter and Paul, although the other apostle are also mentioned. This book is easy to read since the subject matter is simple and accessible. Perhaps we could even characterize it as an adventure story. Therefore, don’t be intimidated, just start reading and you won’t regret it.

After such a long introduction, let’s turn our attention to today’s excerpt and make several short observations. This excerpt is one of the tipping or breaking points in the Acts of the Apostles. The beginning of the reading and the text which preceded it describe how the Church in Jerusalem grew, thanks to the preaching and amazing and unheard-of miracles of the apostles. The second part switches to the history of the persecution of the Church by the Jews.

The miracles of the apostles were without precedent. Even Christ did not heal like His disciples did in those first days of the young Church. Since then, few of the saints preformed such great signs. This isn’t by accident, since in those days the Holy Spirit operated with an abundance of Divine Grace, to quickly and firmly establish the Church. We see something similar in our own spiritual lives. When a person consciously turns to Christ, he is given a certain grace-filled power to pray, fast, attend church services, struggle, read spiritual literature, do good deeds, etc. In such a way a person is strengthened in his new faith. Later on, this special grace is hidden so that the person is motivated to work out his salvation. Hearing today’s words from the Acts of the Apostles, it’s easy to think that it would be wonderful if such miracles were commonplace today. Although it would be something if the shadows of our hierarchs were able to heal the sick, apparently this is not for our spiritual benefit. The Lord has given us different ways of strengthening our faith, be it the memory of past miracles, the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, our rich liturgical heritage, or the writings of the holy fathers. Perhaps there are also other reasons for why we no longer see such great miracles. It is likely that our faith is not like the faith of those people who came on foot to Jerusalem from neighbouring towns and villages with their ailing relatives, with the hope that the shadow of Peter would make them whole.

At the end of today’s reading we heard how an angel freed the apostles from prison and instructed them to once again go into the Temple and to continue to preach the Life – the risen Christ, Jesus. Let us also, who are freed from our sins and passions, not by an angel but by the risen Christ Himself, stand among those who surround us and speak to them about the wonderful life in Christ. Let’s do this through living a truly Christian life, through good deeds, and through a pious attitude towards prayer and the church.

priest Alexis