Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the after-feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the day of the priest-martyr Isidore of Yuriev and his parishioners who were martyred for the Orthodox faith. The priest-martyr Isidore lived in Yuriev (today’s Tartu in Estonia) in the middle of the 15th century. He was the priest at the local Orthodox parish of St. Nicholas. We know practically nothing about him except that because he refused to convert to Catholicism, Isidore and seventy-two parishioners were drowned in a hole in the ice made for the blessing of water on Theophany.

Today we heard a short, but very beautiful and expressive excerpt from the Gospel according to Matthew. We read how at the beginning of His earthly ministry, our Lord chose a place to live. According to human reason, His choice was not all that logical. When someone wishes to advance some kind of idea or a new teaching, he chooses an ideal place from which to do this. He settles in a place which has a large enough population and in which there is a good chance that people will accept this new idea or teaching eagerly. Christ did not act in such a way. Instead, He left Judea, where the pious Jews lived. Likewise, He did not settle in Tiberias, the administrative centre of Galilee, but chose Capernaum, a fishing village on the north-western coast of the Sea of Galilee. This of course is not by chance, for the Prophet Isaiah, long before the birth of Christ, foretold that in those places where not only Jews, but also Gentiles lived, a Light, that is the Saviour of the world, would appear. From this place Christ began to preach repentance because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Despite the fact that the local inhabitants did not accept the teaching of the Saviour, His choice to live in Capernaum in no wise harmed the spreading of His message not only in Galilee, but throughout the whole world!

To a certain extent, every true Christian is obliged to leave the problems and noise of this world and settle in a remote and forgotten village. This does not mean to physically move out into the country, but to change one’s mindset concerning the overly busy world that surrounds us. It means not to become attached to it, nor to constantly think only about it. On the contrary, one must strive to live more simply, as if we were living somewhere in the woods on the shores of a lake, where everything is still, where there is no internet, where there is no worldly bustle. If we do this, we will find time for prayer, for spiritual reading, and most importantly for reflections on our sins. In such a way, the process of repentance can begin. Perhaps if we try to do this, not only a feeling of repentance will appear in our lives, but also God’s light, which will enlighten our souls.

priest Alexis