Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the feastday of St. Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism!

Today we heard a short but deeply meaningful excerpt from St. Paul’s epistle to his closest helper and spiritual son, Timothy. Paul writes that truly Christ came to save sinners. He emphasizes that he himself is chief amongst sinners, since he was earlier a merciless persecutor of Christians. Christ forgave and pardoned him, not simply because of His love towards man, but to give every person who believes in Him hope that God, no matter what, will forgive him as well. Considering all of this, the Holy Apostle concludes today’s reading with a doxology to the Most-Holy Trinity.

We, when we sin, separate ourselves from God, but He, being merciful, is ever ready to forgive us and to accept us back into His fold. The fact that Paul was forgiven is so obvious that he had to need to prove it. His apostolic labours witness to this. We can also be certain that our past mistakes and sins are forgiven. Weekly we stand in church and hear St. Paul’s words that we are chief amongst sinners. While hearing these words, we apply them to ourselves, and then draw near to the chalice and commune of Christ’s Holy Mysteries. Our Lord and God Himself comes and makes His abode within us and sanctifies us!

Truly our God, who makes out of the fiercest persecutor a preacher and forgives us all and joins Himself to us, is wondrous! Therefore, it behooves us to do as St. Paul did and honour and glorify Him. Let’s listen to what St. John Chrysostom says about this and try to follow his advice. “Now honour and glory are not mere words; and since He has honoured us not by words only, but by what he has done for us, so let us honour Him by works and deeds.”

priest Alexis