Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord, the transfer of the icon Not-Made-By-Hands from Edessa to Constantinople, and the Dormition of the Most-Holy Mother of God!

In today’s Epistle reading we heard how St. Paul, in a particularly passionate and emotional manner, addresses the Corinthians like a parent his children. He reminds them how the apostles, and he himself in particular, suffered and laboured in order for them to be fortunate in Christ Jesus. It’s as if the apostles signed their own death sentences, all for the sake of being able to preach the crucified and resurrected Christ. And for the sake of this message they are ready to be deprived of all the pleasant things this world has to offer. They do all of this not only with patience, but also with joy, knowing that they are leading people to communion with God. The apostle wrote all of this, as he himself says, to warn them, i. e. so that those people who perpetrated disputes and divisions (remember, we talked about this the last two weekends), leaning on their own personal worldly knowledge, counting themselves to be worthy of attention, would realize that their worthiness is not at all comparable to the worthiness of St. Paul himself. Paul wrote this with the hope that these people would calm down, act more meekly, and stop dividing the Corinthian Church over petty things.

These passionate and emotional words could be taken as hurtful and not as intended, therefore Paul adds that although the Corinthians may have many instructors, they have few fathers. He, in the most literal sense, is their father, who birthed them into Christ, i. e. he founded their Church and brought them the good news of salvation through Jesus. In the end, we hear these daring and wonderful words: “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.”

Probably every parent can relate to St. Paul’s worries which are so vividly expressed in today’s excerpt. Let us also try to have such zealous and passionate feeling for Christ, for our salvation, for the salvation of our children, for the unity of the Church. Let’s try to emulate the Apostle as he emulated Christ, i. e. let’s do everything for the sake of our salvation, our children’s salvation, the salvation of our brothers and sisters in Christ, paying no heed to the physical and temporal troubles that may follow such single-minded service.

Let’s also remember that there is a difference between spiritual instructors and spiritual fathers. Our fathers are the apostles and the other saints who have left for us their teachings about Christ. Although the apostle Paul mentions that we don’t have many of them, two thousand years have passed and since then, many new saints have appeared. They have all birthed that Church which we have right now. They built her up on that foundation which was laid by the apostle Paul. Let’s not forget them and let’s honour and love them as is meet. Instructors or teachers are those who help us and guide us on our path of salvation, but who, without a doubt, lack the authority of the saints. We can include modern day spiritual writers and lecturers in their ranks. They are, of course, useful, and they can be read, but let’s not equate them with the saints. Through the prayers of our holy fathers, St. Paul and all the saints, may the Lord God save us all.

priest Alexis