SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
SECOND SUNDAY IN MATTHEW
(18-06-2023)
WRITTEN TH. KIRYGMA
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today’s Gospel reading recounts the calling of the first disciples, whom our Lord summoned to come to Him there at the Sea of Tiberias, Peter and Andrew, the brothers who were casting their nets into the sea, and John and James, the sons of Zebedee, who were sitting with their father mending their nets. They were fishermen, simple people, illiterate people, whom our Lord called and named Apostles, so that they might continue the salvific work, the work of proclaiming the Holy Gospel. The Gospel of peace, the Gospel of love, the Gospel of the reconciliation of humanity with God.
Reconciliation was accomplished through the sacrifice of Christ, through the Cross of Christ, and through the Resurrection of Christ. The preaching of the Apostles is the preaching of the Cross, the preaching of the Resurrection. Our Lord Jesus Christ chose fishermen, simple people, so that they might authentically proclaim the Gospel of Truth, the Cross, and the Resurrection.
These disciples, who were eyewitnesses to the entire course of Christ’s life on earth, urge us to follow the example of our Lord, who, through His voluntary sacrifice, His ascent to the Cross of Martyrdom and His Resurrection, brought about the salvation of the human race. And now, in order to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, people must crucify their old selves and their passions so that they may be led to the Resurrection.
If a person does not repent, if he is not purified, if he does not receive the Spirit of God within himself, the Spirit of truth, he cannot be reborn, nor can he convey the truth.
That is why, from today until the Day of Judgment, the true Shepherds of Christ, those who are Orthodox in both faith and practice, will always be purified first, and then God will use them as instruments of His glory and power. May the Lord raise up workers for His vineyard—genuine, Orthodox, who will lead us on the path of salvation, on the path of truth. Amen.—
Archimandrite Dionysios Mallios
