A word of praise to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, delivered on the 4th day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ

Sermon of St. Sophronius of Jerusalem “A speech of praise to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, delivered on the 4th day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ” (6 chapters) is a theological reflection on the unity and significance of the ministry of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The saint emphasizes that, despite differences in origin, character and spheres of activity, both apostles have equal apostolic dignity and grace, received directly from Christ. He focuses on the fact that this unity was established by Christ himself and therefore should not be broken. St. Sophrony explains why the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul is celebrated after the feast of the first martyr Stephen. The apostles deliberately take the “last” place, following Christ’s commandment of humility. Humility, according to the saint, is the true path to exaltation and imitation of Christ. *The title of the work in Latin is In sanctos apostolos Petrum et Paulum. 1. Again the inseparable two appeared to us; again we have blossomed as an inseparable couple; Once again we were left with an unbroken marriage, when the celebrations of the two apostles merged into one holiday and one celebration, and illuminated us with intense joy, like a single radiance of sunlight. Because today Peter, the highest of the apostles, is glorified, and with him Paul, equal with him in grace and close to him in apostolic dignity, although he was not among the sacred number of the 12 radiant apostles, which election and calling was not made by any of the ordinary people, and not by a prophet, and not by a patriarch, and not by a righteous man, and not by a heavenly and incorporeal angel, because they are all slaves and fellow servants of us, people, even if they were much superior to us in virtues and spiritual dignity and grace, but this was done by Christ Himself, the Lord of all and at the same time God and Lord, sublime by nature and One by Hypostasis, consisting of Divine and human natures, and clearly recognizable as bearing both natures - Divine and human, and, due to the unchanging and indestructible union in Him of these two natures, He is in no way divided into one and the other, and does not allow any cutting or division, but those natures of which He consists did not merge into one, even if they were united with each other according to Hypostasis (into one Hypostasis); and those natures of which He consists are not separated from each other, even if He is perfectly known in them as God and as man, and He is known as One in both natures; He, who knows the hearts and innermost thoughts and sees the invisible movements of the soul, everything that every person secretly plans in the heart, even if he thinks that the evil movements of his nature may remain hidden. 2. Thus, grieving (concerned) about our salvation, for the sake of which He came down from heaven to us, He carried out the calling of the fishermen and gave them the grace of the apostleship, commensurate with their number, not dividing them by dignity and not mixing them into one of their rank, but with the unity of apostolic dignity and grace, preserving the difference in rank; because the Wisdom of God and the Power, and the Word in His knowledge surpassing the knowledge of all, perfectly judged to preserve the unity of the apostolic dignity and to recognize a clear difference in order, so that order would not turn into disorder, because disorder is hated by God, and the grace of dignity would not be cut into unequal degrees of grace. Because the gifts are immutable and the limit that He has set will in no way, as the psalm song says, pass away (Psalm 103:9). He, who arranges everything in due measure and order, and gives gifts to everyone impartially, after he made the first election of the apostles in the number of 12, he also established another order of disciples in the number of 72. After the Ascension from earthly affairs into heaven, which was in the flesh, which He received from us (because before He descended to us, He was incorporeal and incorporeal) 1, He also revealed the third election, wonderfully increasing the number of apostles, without making a difference in apostolic dignity, because our God, the Potter of all (ὁ πάντων κεραμεύς), has the power, with the help of clay and mold, to make the vessel whatever He wishes and no one can resist His will; And after he had clearly chosen Paul, he said to Ananias, who baptized Paul and became his mentor, because he enlightened him who was blind (that is, healed his blindness) and baptized him who had received his sight, and taught the baptized one the divinely inspired teaching: “Go in order to teach him Divine instruction, and also so that he may receive his sight, for this is the vessel chosen by Me, to carry My name is before the tongues and kings and the sons of Israel. “I will tell him how much it is fitting for him to suffer for My name” (Acts 9:15-16). But the wonderful Paul himself, showing where the dignity of his apostolic ministry comes from, wrote this: “Who helped Peter in the message of circumcision, he also helped me in the tongues” (Gal. 2:8). 3. Therefore, since the Savior, by His election, united with Peter, the supreme Apostle and preacher, the divine Paul, and gave them both the same dignity (although he made the first an apostle of the circumcision, and the second he appointed for the flock of the Gentiles) 2 and the same grace, and gave them the God-given power to adopt as sons to God and the Parent of all those who through Him, as Christ, will turn to Him; and gave them both one name: to be called after Christ Himself: “Christians”, then it is natural that we, their disciples and followers, cherishing their faith and kissing their teaching, will unite one to another those whom the grace of the Spirit has already united with each other, and will make up a holiday common to them, as those who have also received equal election as their inheritance; and therefore, we celebrate the one holiday for Christ, as having illuminated us, through both of them, with a single spiritual joy, because those whom Christ Himself united and provided with a single grace, those, as the fathers who gave birth to us in Christ established, would not be safe to separate; therefore, behold, they decided to celebrate one holiday for them, and in this clearest way we will honor their community, because where Peter, the leading figure of the apostles, is proclaimed, the name of Paul is immediately pronounced; and where the divine man Paul appears, Peter, his colleague, is also seen. 4. Thus, these wise and divine men make a wonderful partnership with each other, not wanting separation from each other, turning away from division, avoiding schism, avoiding dissection, not loving distance from each other as a cause of hatred and reasons for enmity - in order to teach us by this the benefit that comes from spiritual love, and the goodness that comes from the feeling of friendship about Christ; because what does not happen according to Christ God does not bring any benefit to the worker; so, for this reason, both of them, teaching us the benefits that come from love, and in their example presenting its meaning, celebrate one common holiday. Hence, recognizing the significance of the inextricable love that connects us with each other, they defined it as the greatest of all gifts, as not knowing to do evil to one’s neighbor. “Love,” says one Apostle, “does not harm one’s neighbor” (1 Cor. 13, 4 para.); and instructs those clothed in it to bear with one another; and not only this, but also commands not to seek one’s own, but, out of a feeling of love, to desire what is pleasing for one’s neighbor; She makes those who participate in her one body and one spirit and establishes them in the same hope of (Christian) vocation, and reveals them to be partners in eternal life. Another (Apostle) says: Having purified your souls into obedience to the truth, into brotherly love without hypocrisy, from a pure heart, love one another diligently, and as servants of God, who honor us all, love brotherly love (1 Peter 1:22), knowing that love makes us brothers to each other, therefore he ardently exhorts us, first of all, to have mutual love because the Apostle decisively declares that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) 5. But we, striving to act contrary to their teaching, not only do not want to love each other, but are also ready to hate our neighbors as if they were enemies, not knowing, as it seems, that enmity and hatred come from an evil spirit, and on the basis of this we offend them and oppress them, and slander them, and do whatever possible harm to them, completely lacking in ourselves the feeling of love, which, as the wise Paul says, does not cause harm to one's neighbor, because, in truth, the beautiful meaning of love is found in not doing harm to one's neighbor. But neither their divine instructions, filled with Divine grace and delivering salvation to their workers - and not only to their listeners - nor wise examples could guide us to (mutual) love, to such an extent we are seriously ill with brotherly hatred and are obsessed with the disease of hatred for each other, which, indeed, is the source and parent of all evil. Therefore, I pray to you, beloved, that in celebrating this apostolic and loving feast of Peter and Paul, divine men, we will be jealous of their love and desire to merge into one body 3 , just as we have received the one anointing of faith, and put an end to every evil feeling towards each other, so that we may all become participants together in the heavenly rewards that flow through love, showing that we are true disciples of them and being their children, and recognized as their sons, as holding on to their love and strictly following their instructions, and in no way violating their sacred teachings. 6. But why do these wise and greatest (Apostles Peter and Paul) act this way, after the all-perfect Stephen, clearly coming to the stage and of their own free will prefer for themselves the fourth act of the speech 4, although by the dignity of the supreme apostleship and election, they prevail not only over Stephen, the bright First Martyr, but also over all the God-loving men together, and take precedence on the basis of their greatness apostolic dignity? Because it is absolutely clear that the martyr’s luminosity and radiance are much inferior to the apostolic luminosity and position. And, however, the third day after the saving Nativity of Christ, having ceded the celebration to Stephen, they saved the fourth day for themselves, remembering the commandments of the Lord and trying to fulfill them in this: “because for those who want to occupy the first places and those who strive to acquire great dignity, He commanded to occupy the last place, thus literally telling them If anyone wants to be older, let there be a lesser one for everyone, and even more pain in you, there will be as you are mature and old, as you serve. He who exalts himself will humble himself, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Mark 9:35; Luke 22:26; Matt. 23:12). But those who were last called to work in the vineyard were the first to receive the reward (Matthew 20:1-16). And knowing this well, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul take second place, and give primacy to the divine Stephen, in order to be the first in the most righteous manner and by their example to teach us the perfect path of exaltation, namely modesty and humility, the path that the first Christ, having accomplished, paved. Learn from us (as the Apostles say) by our deeds, who say that we are meek and humble in heart, according to the commandment of Christ, the Lord and Teacher. And on this basis, the first of them exhorted us to honor each other, putting others above ourselves, and the second wants us to put on humility towards each other. Because God, as they say, opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and therefore added to this exhortation: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:5-6). And them, beloved brethren, whom we are listeners and disciples, let us learn with their teaching and imitation of them, and combine them with listening to word and deed, on the basis of this having adopted mutual love for each other, so that in word and deed we strive to imitate them, bearing likeness in relation to them, and thus, accordingly, celebrating their holiday, we will have joy in both our soul and spirit, and with joy we will accomplish their most joyful celebration. Because when this is done in this way, they, seeing this, rejoice even more and are even more filled with joy, and rejoicing with us and enjoying themselves, they bring prayers to God for us, praying that we have a peaceful life and asking for us the Kingdom of Heaven, which may we all - after we properly put ourselves in order and cleanse ourselves with holy repentance and bind ourselves with bonds of mutual love - to acquire delight and radiance, and receive ageless and never-ending life, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom, together with the Father and the All-Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, power, splendor and praise, always, now and ever, and forever and ever Amen 5. We took the brackets from lat. translation. Lat. lane “Let us try to become one spirit and one body.” As we noted in the preface, the memory of St. The First Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul were celebrated in the Jerusalem Church in those days on the fourth day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, after the celebration of the memory of St. First Martyr, Archdeacon Stephen, which was celebrated (as it is now celebrated) on the third day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. S. Patrum nostri Sophronii Archierissori Nierosolumorum Laudes BB. Apostolorum Retri et Rauli, distae die quarta festivali SS. Natalis. Migne. R.G.t. 87 3, col. 3356–3364. You might be interested in: