Sermon from our Father in Christ, Metropolitan Silouan, for our feast.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
I am very happy to be among you today. Why? Because this is the feast of the Twelve Apostles. These are the patron saints of this parish and this is a big feast for us. We have to learn from the Apostles, from All the Saints, because they are human and they have come to this earth and have done something to gain Heaven, to gain salvation. So we learn from them, but what do we learn from the Twelve Apostles? There a lot of things in my mind but I will say two things only.
The first thing is when Jesus called them “Come, follow me,” they left everything and went with him. And they stayed with him until he ascended into the Heavens. Hearing him, eating with him, acting as disciples, as his students, this is very important for us to learn too. This is the first thing I want to tell you.
Everyone is invited for us all to follow Jesus: do you want or not? This is your decision not mine. We have to tell you that the salvation without Jesus Christ is difficult and you cannot gain it. But with him you can gain salvation. So, do you want to follow him? It’s up to you! But please, consider your salvation: if you follow him salvation is very nearby you.
The Apostles hear him, they act as students to him. What does it mean? They were nearby him always. So after his invitation for them to follow him and their acceptance, they follow him, they hear him, they eat with him, they act as students like we also do in the Church. We come to the Church, we hear the prayers, we hear him speaking to us through the Gospel. Now the priest reads the Gospel but not in his own sound: Jesus Christ is speaking the Gospel to us. So it’s very important, not only on Sundays to hear the Gospel: you have to read the Gospel every day at home. Please! Jesus Christ will speak with you through the Gospel. If you don’t read, it means you don’t want him to speak with you. Please, try your best, as much as you can, to read the Gospel as much as you can, to hear what God wants from you and from your life.
Come to the Church, which means to live nearby Jesus Christ, to have Communion, this is very important: the Apostles stayed with and beside Jesus Christ, he went somewhere they go with him. So, without Communion it’s difficult for us: Jesus Christ would not be with us, inside us, he would be somewhere else. We have to find him, it’s easy to find him through Communion. If you go out to find him in the face of a poor man, you can find him, but I think it’s difficult. It’s more easy to see him through the Gospel, more easy to see him through the Communion. So, Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, is very important for our salvation. So, this is the first point.
The second point I have learned from the Apostles, that after Jesus Christ went to Heaven, they spread the Word all around the world. St Peter, went to Antioch, and they also came to Europe and elsewhere, telling the people that the heavenly Kingdom is nearby us. Do you want to live just only in this world with this body? If you want you can do this, you can do it, but I cannot tell you if you are going to live with Jesus Christ in Heaven. I will not tell you, I cannot tell you, but if you want your life to be in Heaven you have to do something: he will not give you freely, you have to do something. You have to read the Gospel, you have to love, not just only your family, you have to love everyone— even your enemy! I know that’s difficult.
If your neighbour is doing something bad for you, how can you love him? It’s difficult, I know. But with the grace of God you will try not to have hate in your heart. You will do your best to protect your family from the harm of this neighbour but without letting the anger come to your heart, without letting the hate come to your heart, so your heart will be clean when you meet God in Communion, when you meet him in the Gospel, you will hear him, you will meet him face-to-face.
So, the second point is they went out telling everyone that Jesus Christ is our salvation: now it’s our job also. Not only come to the Church, we have to tell everyone, “Please, come and see.” As Fr Alexander wrote four years ago when he established this mission, he said “come and see.” “Come to the Church and see” and you have to say it to everyone in your family, in your neighbourhood, in your country — wherever! — invite them to see Jesus Christ because you love them and you want salvation for them. Not only do you love yourself, not only do you love your family — you want all to see salvation, to see Jesus Christ who will come and will separate two groups, one on his right and the other on his left. The group on the right, will be the good ones who follow him; the other group they decided not to follow him.
So, I will let you make the decision. Do you want to follow Jesus Christ? Do you want salvation? It’s hard to get salvation outside the Church. Inside the Church there are difficulties, I know, I understand, everywhere there are. So may God bless you all.
Now is the feast of your patron saints, the Twelve Apostles, after yesterday’s feast of St Peter and St Peter. We celebrate this as Antiochians because Peter and Paul established the Church in Antioch. Antioch is a city in the south part of Türkiye, but there the whole city started the Church: not in Jerusalem, outside Jerusalem, the first Christian city, the first Church was Antioch. So we celebrate as Antiochians St Peter and St Paul because they established our Church and they went out to all Europe telling them, “Follow Jesus.”
Do you want? It’s your decision. Not ours, not mine, not the priest’s, it’s your decision. But if you do follow, please, be sure, that you do your best to be a good student to the Teacher, to God, to Jesus Christ, Amen.
Brethren, all the saints through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering over deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
— Hebrews 11:33–40, 12:1–2
At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaios, and Thaddaios; Simon the Cananaean. and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay.”
— Matthew 9:36, 10:1–8