27^th January

Bishop Nikolai Velimirovch
The Prologue from Ohrid

Homily

About the confusion of those of little faith

"What sort of man is this Whom even the winds and the sea obey?" (St. Matthew 8:27).

In these words the apostles, not yet knowing the Lord Jesus and seeing how He calmed the turbulent sea and winds questioned: "What sort of man is this Whom even the winds and the sea obey?" This is He Who created the winds and the sea. Therefore, what kind of miracle is it that His own created things obey Him? Is not the axe an obedient tool in the hands of him who made it? The Lord created everything by His word, that is why all things submit to His word.

Brethren, "What sort of man is this?" Who is He? This is the same One Who, before that, raised the winds and quieted them and Who agitated the sea and subdued it. This is the same One Who also does that today . As a man, He stood before men and rebuked the animated wind and unbridled sea in order to dispel the confusion of men as though the winds and the sea are moved and calmed either by blind chance or by some evil power; to reveal the truth for ever that the wise and beneficial power of the Creator directs and commands all the elements according to His Providence.

The apostles questioned: "Who is He?" O, Holy Apostles, He is the sinless Son of God Whose Name you will spread throughout the whole world and for Whose Name you will be tortured and slain as lambs by wolves. Who are the wolves? The wolves are those who think that the wind moves on its own and that the sea agitates and calms itself on its own, either only of itself or of the devil. O, Holy Apostles, you who asked and who received a true reply and the whole truth you proclaimed to the whole world, pray for us so that we too may be enlightened by that truth.

O Lord, All-Wise and All-Powerful, calm the winds of sin and subdue the storm of our filthy and unworthy passions.

St. Thomas the Apostle extends an open invitation to all other Christians, Parents, Teenagers, and Children to Worship in this faith-filled community environment.  We seek like-minded individuals seeking a community that exhibits traditional precepts, core values and ideals.

27^th January

Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World

Childishness or the Spirit of Childhood?

Jesus says: ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.’ [Luke 18:16]

   If that is how things are, growing up means loss.  Why should I desire to grow up if adulthood deprives me of the right to the kingdom?  Can you explain why God should ahve given us physical development which favours vice, not virtue?  And for what reason did the Lord not turn to children but to grown men when he was choosing his Apostles?  In brief, why does he say that children are fit to enter the kingdom?

   Someone will suggest this reason: because children to not bear malice, they do not know how to swindle their neighbour, they are not vindictive, they do not desire wealth, they do not covet honours.

   Maybe: but virtue is not founded on ignorance.  Still less is self-control praiseworthy if it is only due to importance.

   Therefore the Lord is not offering us childhood as our example but the goodness that imitates the simplicity of childhood.  He does not put before us inability to sin – which would not be virtue – but the will not to sin, a steady will not to sin, fir which we ought to take a childhood as our model.

   For the rest, the Lord himself says: ‘Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ [Matt. 18:3]

Ambrose

On the Gospel of St Luke, 8, 57ff.  (PL15, 1782)