Sermons & Homilies
Our hearts are filled today with godly joy and pious glorying. What Christian soul can fail to be so moved at the commemoration of the two spiritual giants set before us? —the princes of the Church, the pillars of the Faith, the preachers of the truth, the crowns of the Hebrew race, the beloved friends and apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter and Paul stand conspicuously at the head of the assembly of Apostles, amidst the Church triumphant, in ceaseless worship of the crucified Lord to whom they devoted their whole lives, sealing this gift with their own blood; and we on earth join in the heavenly chorus today, exulting in our God who is so wondrous in his saints. Since we already know of their glorious end, we ought to consider as well their inglorious beginnings, and how they attained such unspeakable glory.
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The Apostle Paul, who is unsurpassed in his reasons for pride, now admits, “in me, no good doth lie.”
The Apostle Peter, faithful in his family’s trade and employment, abandoned all to receive a hundredfold and heaven’s enjoyment.
Born a Jew and then set apart, is circumcised in flesh, and now also in heart.
Toiling all night, Peter’s nets are all bare, ‘til he obeys Christ’s bidding; now, no room to spare.
A Hebrew of Hebrews with a pedigree to boast, now born from above to labor the most.
A man of the earth with his hands in the waters, now netting for Heaven new sons and daughters.
We stand at a spiritual crossroad today—two martyrs with insuppressible love for Christ are both commemorated today: St. George—the glorious, faithful and pure lover of Christ who was filled with divine love from His youth; and St. Photini—the repentant Samaritan woman, who, after Christ came to her and revealed her sins and told her plainly that He was the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of all mankind; after this, she acknowledged her sins, cast them aside and went straightway in her zeal with haste to preach this Good News to all her kinsman and fellow-neighbors.
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The Gospel tells us that Thomas was not with the other disciples on the day when Christ rose from the dead and appeared to them. Therefore, when the disciples saw Thomas, they announced to him that they had seen the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Thomas replies, saying, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).
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These luminaries are actually and chronologically our “Fathers among the Saints,” who have begotten us through the Gospel throughout time, us who were living among the dead. They are the fountainhead after whom the Holy Spirit has coursed through the ages of men, that fountain of living water bringing life and light to all men who live in a dry and deserted place. Out of this righteous pair grows that tree of righteousness, which the Preacher says will flourish, the root of which shall not be moved and the fruit of which becomes a tree of life to those of us, barren of all good works.
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