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to the words: “the rivers lifted up their voices”; and about the Savior’s walk on the sea, about the five loaves and two fishes, and about the first-created people after the fall 1. Today's reading from the Gospel of Matthew - about the turbulence at sea, and about the miraculous walk of the Savior on the waters and about the cowardice of the apostles - is a good reason for us to talk about the words of the prophet: “The rivers have lifted up their voices, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices, the rivers will lift up their waves high, from the noisy movement of many waters: marvelous are the high waves of the sea, “Wonderful is the Lord” (Ps. 93:3-4). What are these “high waves of the sea”? Isn’t it a miracle of the Savior that with one wave He calmed the troubled sea? What else are the rivers that raise their voices in the sea, but the disciples of the Lord? stopped working miracles, and the apostles, experiencing the excitement of the sea, did not retreat from the truth. In the fourth watch of the night, when they saw the Lord walking on the waters of the sea, they took Him for a ghost? How did the servant (the sea that held Him on its surface) recognize the Master, but the disciples did not recognize the Teacher? With so much evidence of His miracles, they doubted when they saw Him walking on the surface of the sea. Was it not He himself who, through the rod of Moses, exposed the depths of the sea and opened the wet path to the children of Israel? They considered Him to be a ghost and were frightened: they “trembled with fear [where... there was no fear]" (Ps. 13:5), because they were afraid when they saw the harbor of life close in front of them. When everyone was overwhelmed with fear, Peter stood up and said to the Lord: “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. He said, Go” (Matthew 14:28-29). And to the disciples said: “Be of good cheer; it is I, do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). I really speak, and not as a ghost, because I am the Truth itself, made human in order to abolish the author of ghosts. “It is I, do not be afraid”! Isn’t it about Me that the words are said: “He brings forth the winds from His treasures” (Ps. 134:7)? And now I have allowed the winds not to frighten you, but to confirm you. When the Lord said this, Peter, with his characteristic ardor of faith, stood out again and began to say: Lord, are you the Christ? By your speeches I recognize You, but Your deeds make me doubt: we have never seen You walking on the sea. But if You are Christ, command me to come to You on the waters. The Lord said to him: go if you have sufficient support in your faith. I don't allow any pretense. If you don't believe it, don't go. When Peter followed this call of the Lord, he stood on the surface of the sea, having faith unshakable by doubt. But, moving away a little, due to the inconstancy characteristic of man, succumbing to fear, he doubted, hesitated and began to reason with himself: what an incredible phenomenon: I walk on the sea, trampling on moisture like the dust of the earth. When Peter began to waver like this, the sea, as if outraged by the unbelief of a slave like himself, began to ripple, admonishing his fellow servant and drowning the infidel. Then Peter, seeing that faith carried him on the water, and unbelief subjected him to agitation, shouted to the Lord: “Lord! save me” (Matthew 14:30). What are you saying, Peter? Now that you are in danger, will you recognize the Lord? What about Christ? I will not allow you to perish, I will extend my hand to you, because I hold everything in My hand. “Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him and said to him: you of little faith! Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:31)? The apostles experienced many doubts. Until the resurrection they hesitated; Only after the resurrection, having received firm confidence, did they become unshakable in their faith. And that until the resurrection they were overwhelmed by many doubts, you heard about this today: how late in the evening the apostles came to the Lord with the words: “The place here is deserted and the time is already late; let the people go, so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves” (Matthew 14:15; cf. Mark 6:32; Luke 9:10). Notice here, too, what indecisiveness there is in my thoughts. They turn to the Savior with the words: “let the people go, this place is deserted.” The Lord answers them: Should I let the people go? Why are you dishonoring Me? Why do you condemn the Teacher? Will I let the people go so they can buy food for themselves? But what will those from whom they buy bread say? Why do they buy bread in My presence? If we really had no bread, it would be good in your opinion to let them go; but now, being myself bread, how can I let go of the hungry who demand food from me? The people demand, and I will drive away those who demand? What kind of shepherd would do this to his sheep. To Daniel, who was in the lions' den, I sent Habakkuk with food; To the children of Israel - the ungrateful - for forty years I sent manna from heaven: Shall I leave the grateful hungry? Of course not, under no circumstances! “Give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16). Then the apostles say: should we give them food? Where can we get it when we are ordered not to take anything with us on the road? We have nothing except five loaves and two fish; but what is this for five thousand people, not counting women and children? The Lord answers them: where do you get it? You have a treasury of faith. Didn’t I tell you that “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20, 21:22). The mountains are rearranged, but the loaves are not multiplied? You give them something to eat. When they were perplexed and refused (to give food to the people), the Lord said to them: “Seat them” (Luke 9:14). I came to serve, and I do not refuse to serve even slaves. From the beginning I was destined to serve: already in Paradise I served Adam. And what I did there, I do not refuse to do here. 2. It is necessary, of course, to explain how and when God ministered to Adam. Listen carefully. We are especially indebted to God for the sixth day, the last day of creation, when we received the promise. Then God honored Adam by taking him as a partner in dominion over the creatures. You know well how in paradise the Creator, having seated Adam on an elevated place, brought each of the animals to him. From the very beginning the Master did not shrink from pleasing His servant, His own creation; so in the Gospel read today, He did not refuse to serve the slaves, He sat them down on the grass and, taking the loaves, broke them and handed them over to the disciples for distribution, feeding, multiplying (the loaves), performing miracles, satisfying the people. So it was in paradise, showing goodness towards His creation, that the Creator, having seated Adam in a high place, brought each of the animals to him, so that Adam would give them the names he wanted, and through this become His partner in the work of creation; Scripture testifies to this: “The Lord God formed out of the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought [them] to man, to see what he would call them, and that whatever man called every living creature, that was its name” (Gen. 2:19). This should have taught them that they were created for you. I hand over control of them to you. Was as much done for an angel, or any other creature, as for a person? Having created him alone with his own hands, the Creator served him alone, firstly by bringing animals, and secondly by preparing clothes. Showing the same thing to His disciples, during His earthly life, He began to wash their feet, reproducing the likeness of the ancient creation. When Peter, out of reverence, refused to wash his feet, the Lord said to him: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” (John 13:8). I served Adam, firstly, by bringing animals to him, and secondly, by creating him a wife from his rib, i.e. giving him what belonged to him, and before him, to Me. All this, friends, shows that only man among all creatures is the chosen and incomparable creation of God; about him alone it is written: “Let us make man in our image [and] after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Great was God's disposition towards man; and the Creator honored Adam with such glory as no other creature ever shared. But Adam neglected all this and fell into the very bottom of hell; instead of the kingdom he brought poverty upon himself, from a master he became a slave, from a supreme ruler he became a beggar; endowed with beauty now does not even have a traveling staff; who had a daily friendly conversation with God now hides under a tree like a thief; having received a dwelling in paradise, he is now expelled from paradise and settles opposite it, so that, having before the gases what he has lost, he will not cease to be indignant at vain advice. In fact, what else could Adam do, living outside paradise, exhausted under the weight of labor cultivating the land and sweating, if not to scold his wife, expressing to her such reproaches: look at the fruits of your advice - because you did what was pleasing to the snake, I am deprived of the gift of God. Didn't you promise me, wife, that if I ate the forbidden fruit, I would become blessed? Didn't you promise to make me a god after eating the forbidden fruit? How did God turn out to be a navvy, the blessed one - the most unfortunate? You deceived and must be punished; I lost a rib, but I couldn’t find an assistant. Woe to me, wife Eve, mother of death, parent of disobedience, culprit of expulsion from paradise, lover of snake hissing, obedient instrument of the devil’s cunning! Go away from me: why did you destroy my immortality, why did you tear my royal clothes? It was not woven by you, but you tore it apart. Why did you teach me how to sew fig leaves? Why did you, deceiver, bring me a destructive fruit, with the words: take it, eat the fruit forbidden to you? “That on the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). What did you do, wife? I'm blinded, I can't see anything. I did evil and pushed away good. I work like a ray, and do not enjoy power like God. Go away, wife, I don't know who you are. Before they touch you, I seek deliverance; I can't bear the trouble. And you knew no worries, did not experience sorrow: remember the condemnation when the time approaches to give birth to you. Leave me, wife; You have become the cause of unbearable disasters for me: I am commanded to cultivate the land, to eat bread by the sweat of my brow; The earth is commanded to produce thorns and thistles for me. I am condemned to this by God. What should I do? How do I prepare my spade? How do I equip the plow? How can I teach an ox to obey the yoke? Where will I get the ropes (for the yoke)? How do I sow the seed? When will I get the ears of corn? How can I sharpen the sickle? How will I gather the sheaves? How can I put them in the cart? How can I clean the threshing floor? How can I make a winnowing fan? How can I set up the millstones? When will I add the starter? What form will I put the bread in? How will I start a fire? I can't bear the grief. After how much work and sweat do I eat bread? Look, how many evils have you caused for me, wife, who was called life and turned out to be death? And in fact, the culprit of death is a woman, both then and now. And let no women be angry with me because I speak like this about a woman; If they want to reproach me, I reject such reproaches. Let them be indignant not at me, but at Christ-bearing Paul. If they want to scold him, let them scold him. And we, as his disciples, will convey his words without adding anything of our own. Let them listen to Paul, who speaks through our lips: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you to Christ as a pure virgin. But I am afraid, lest, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his cunning, so your minds too will be corrupted” (2 Cor. 11:2-3). Do you see that it was not the husband who was tempted, but the wife who was deceived? Who was deceived? Who has trusted himself to the serpent's flattery? A woman who has the mouth of a serpent, and like him spews poison. Who talked to the serpent? She who was looking for seduction. There was no one in heaven except her and her husband; and without fear of solitude or anything else, she walked and wandered, looking for where to find a partner, not yet having tasted marriage, but already ready for adultery. If she had been with her husband, then serpent and serpent would not have come together. He found her away from her husband and seduced her. A wife who is always with her legal husband will never be destroyed, will not suffer a fall, will not fall into adultery, but if she moves away from her husband, then at least she has lived among the angels and is easily exposed to temptations. Where, in fact, do wives indulge in their dirty deeds, moving away from their legitimate husbands, if not at the tombs of martyrs, under the pretext of prayer, arranging meetings with marriage breakers and thereby insulting the very martyrs? And often they even swear in the name of the martyrs allegiance to their lawless deeds. Oh, how much evil Eve caused and how much good she destroyed! All women devoted to chastity are worthy of being called courageous. And there is a big difference between women, as well as between men and between angels. Those women who observe chastity follow the example of the Virgin, love Susanna, kiss Sarah, embrace Rebekah. And those who violate chastity are mistaken like Eve, slander like the Egyptian, cut hair like Delilah, kill the servants of God like Jezebel. This is not a personal opinion, it is witnessed by the universe. Let some of the godless, having heard what has just been said, not try to corrupt our ears, catching us in disagreements. We have no common thoughts with them. The apostolic word, pointing to Eve, gives us a reason to say what we said. Therefore, every year we renew the same words in our memory, bringing as witnesses the divine Paul, who said: “He betrothed you to one husband, that he might present you to Christ as a pure virgin” (2 Cor. 11:2), so that the serpent would not seduce you, as he seduced Eve, Adam’s wife, into falling into sin. In another place the same apostle says: “It was not Adam who was deceived; but the wife, deceived, fell into crime; However, he will be saved through childbearing if he continues in faith and love and holiness with chastity” (1 Tim. 2:14-15), and not with intemperance. “She will be saved through childbearing,” he says, “of course (if she gives birth) not as Eve gave birth to Cain, but as the Virgin gave birth to Christ, to whom be glory and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: