A Word a Week about the Paralytic, during the Liturgy in Greek

Pronounced in 1872 in the academic church. May the participants in the prayers now performed in the Hellenic language, as evidence of our spiritual unity with the Hellenic Church, allow us to talk about the beginning and formation of the first Hellenic Church. This event from the times of the Apostolic Church is important not only historically, but also spiritually and morally. 1). Several years have already passed since the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire, which foreshadowed the unification of all nations in the Church of Christ - Christian preaching was spreading in Judea, in Galilee, but all among those who belonged to the religion and the Jewish church. A movement arose in Samaria, neighboring Judea; The Lord Himself showed, in the example of the Samaritan woman, how this disposition should be used; Following Him, the Apostles hastened to form a church here. - But the preaching of the Gospel could reach the pagans, the Greeks, by faith and language, in no other way than with the condition of first accepting the Jewish law. This is not what the Lord wanted. He did not give Peter the keys of His kingdom so that he would let only the sons of Israel or those who accepted the law of Moses into it. The apostles were in no hurry to preach to the pagans, wanting to attract the sons of Jacob to themselves as much as possible: but because of this, the church suffered great oppression. Savlovo's persecution brought her out of this predicament. – Many Christians, fleeing this persecution, had to completely leave Jerusalem and even the country of Judaism, go to pagan countries, to the so-called Hellenic dispersion. Here, they also first offered the teachings of faith to their fellow tribesmen, the Jews, but then they began to attract the attention of the pagan Hellenes. But, what was most important, the Lord Jesus Christ, by His Divine appearance, Himself attracted to Himself and made not only His follower, but also the Apostle, and the Apostle of the tongues, the very culprit of the persecution, Saul. You see how powerfully the One who said: if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Himself (John 12:34) begins to act. At this time, the attention of the Apostolic Church was especially attracted by a significant number of pagans in Syrian Antioch who were disposed to the Gospel. This city, which at one time was the capital of the kings of Syria, was barely inferior in its external amenities to two or three other cities in the Roman Empire, with a huge population, contained many Jews resettled from Palestine, but the main, dominant nation in it was the Hellenic nation. Taking advantage of its favorable position, close to the sea, he was in trade communications both with other coastal countries and with peoples who lived further into Asia. The indigenous Syrian population related him to the Jews; the newly arrived Greek population - with all the Greek cities and in general with the educated world of that time. Here the Eastern world and the Western world then converged, the first with its ancient beliefs, the second with its enlightenment and literature, in order to exchange their beliefs and ideas with each other, through the medium of the Hellenic language, widespread throughout Asia and Europe. This reveals the importance this city could have for the newly formed Church of Christ. - And behold, those who were scattered from sorrow, who were with Stephen, entered Antioch, speaking to the Greeks, preaching the good news of the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: many believed and turned to the Lord (Acts 11:19-21). Among those who accepted the word of the Lord there were also Jews, but the Hellenes listened to it with great zeal, and the Antioch Church was formed mainly from the Hellenes, and became a breeding ground for preachers in the pagan world itself. Let us bless the Lord, who founded the church with the cross and made the cross a necessary condition for its growth, purification and improvement for all times. With his wave, out of the midst of persecution, a new, extremely important movement arose in the pagan world. Then, as the highest rulers of the church in Jerusalem hesitated to call the pagans, the preachers of the Gospel unknown to us, the men of Cyprus and Cyrene, without thinking for a long time, went straight to the point - and in the success of their work it was immediately revealed that the hand of the Lord was with them. Let us remember: when the Lord said in Jerusalem: I have not been with you for a long time and am going to Him who sent Me, the Jews objected with ridicule: where does this one want to go? Does food in the Hellenic dispersion want to go and teach the Hellenes? (John 7:35). He did not go into the Hellenic dispersion, and could not go; because he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But now, those who preached His name in the Hellenic dispersion, without their own knowledge, were truly His messengers. – The disciples once complained to their Lord that they saw a man who did not walk with them after Jesus and yet cast out demons in His name; and we, the disciples said, forbade him to do this, because He does not walk with us (Luke 9:49). But the Lord did not approve of this prohibition: do not forbid, He said, whoever is not against you is for you (v. 50). This word of the Lord and the example of the evangelists of Antioch seem to allow us to say: in our society, brethren, both in other matters and in relation to the affairs of the Church, there is too little self-activity; Everywhere we expect a challenge to the authorities, the initiative and encouragement of the authorities, while the Christian conscience and the law of the Gospel tell us too clearly what and how we should do. This immobility, this inertia is the reason that we miss the favorable time for doing. We have no well-organized missions, little concern for Christian education, no fraternal concern for the education of the ignorant, for abstinence and correction of our neighbors from vices. And we don't care. It’s as if it wasn’t written for us what we should be: diligent, not lazy, passionate in spirit, working for the Lord. This is not how the first disciples of Christ acted. 2). The significant successes of preaching the Gospel among the Hellenes in Antioch gave rise to two important orders: the sending of the apostolic Barnabas from the Church of Jerusalem to Antioch and the invitation of the recently converted Saul to Antioch to work on the gospel. The Jerusalem Church, as soon as the news of the successes of the Gospel in the capital of Syria reached it, could not ignore this circumstance. The Apostle Peter, not long before, in a vision of the shroud descending from heaven with animals of various kinds and in the appeal of Cornelius the Roman centurion, received for himself and for others a clear understanding that there is no partiality with God, that not only Israelites, but also pagans are called into the Church of Christ, and moreover freely, without any constraint by the ritual requirements of the former law. At the same time, it was revealed that new societies of believers, formed from among the pagans, should be part of the single great body of the Church, should not be disparate members, but submitting to the Divinely established authority of the Apostles, should act in harmony and unity with the Church of Jerusalem. There is one Lord, one faith, and the Church must also be one. And then, just as, according to civil government, the Jews then depended on the main Roman commander in Antioch, according to the new spiritual government, the community of Christians of Antioch had to recognize over itself the authority of the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. Thus, in this order, regarding the believers in Antioch, the Church not only received an important increase in its members, but was also affirmed in the consciousness of the need to unite everyone into one, despite the difference of nationalities, despite the remoteness of distances. For the first time, the Church now stepped out beyond the boundaries of the Jewish world, including into its body members of the Greek world, on whom it was necessary to act in somewhat different ways than on the Jews. Elected from the Apostles of St. Barnabas, a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts 11:24). Three qualities necessary in the highest church leader: goodness, faith, enlightenment by the Holy Spirit, distinguished the Levite Barnabas in the Jerusalem church. His devotion to the cause of the church and high self-sacrifice were expressed even earlier in the fact that he was one of the first to donate to the Church the price of the land he sold, throwing the money received for it at the feet of the Apostles (Acts 4:37). His zeal was matched by the piety of his close relatives: his sister’s house in Jerusalem was dedicated to gatherings of believers for worship, and his nephew Mark himself later became a preacher of the faith and an evangelist (Acts 12:12). With an impartial gaze, without Jewish prejudices, without Levitical prejudices, Barnabas looked at the work of God in Antioch. In the zeal of the Hellenes, he did not hesitate to recognize the fruit of God’s grace and with his instructions exhorted those who turned to be devoted to the Lord with all their hearts. St. Barnabas had a special gift of edifying words, so that according to him the name Barnabas was given to him by the Apostles, which means: son of consolation or spiritual instruction, and his former name in Judaism was Josiah (Acts 4:36). Through his labors in Antioch, he acquired quite a few new members of the Church. - But the multitude of converts, the news of the situation in the church of pagan believers, who required more instruction in the faith than the Jews and instructions of a special kind, the lack of new colleagues from Jerusalem - all this forced St. Barnabas to look for an active assistant. At the same time, he remembered the young Saul, whom he himself, after his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus and the first successes of preaching in Damascus, presented to the Jerusalem church as a newly called son of faith by the grace of God. Saul’s purpose, indicated by the Lord through Ananias at his very conversion, was not hidden from him: to bring the name of the Lord to the tongue (Acts 9:15), confirmed by a new revelation in Jerusalem (Acts 22:21). And indeed, he could not promise himself a better collaborator in the conversion of the pagans. So, Barnabas himself went to Cilicia, adjacent to Syria, the fatherland of Saul, found him here and brought him to Antioch. What unanimity, what absence of any jealousy and envy on the one hand, what trust and submission on the other! Both preachers breathed the same unselfishness, which could be pointed out in view of other examples of the Apostles. Subsequently, comparing his way of acting with others, Paul wrote: food is one and Barnabas is not the imams of the power not to do anything (1 Cor. 9:6), that is, not to acquire the means of support for oneself with one’s own labors? – Even more important for the success of the Gospel was the unanimity of Saul and Barnabas in the organization of the Church from among the converting pagans, in the prudent choice of rules for them from those that the Jerusalem church adhered to in liberating the Hellenes from the burden of the law that lay on the Jews and was still retained by them in Christianity itself. It was necessary to adapt Jerusalem worship to the needs of newly converted pagans, to give the Greeks books of Scripture translated into the Hellenic language and indicate how to use them, to introduce into the liturgy a sermon, which the pagans did not know at all in their religion, to establish a government that could no longer be under such close supervision of the Apostles as in Jerusalem. Ap. Paul testifies that from his very conversion the gospel free from the law which he preached was revealed to him. He was called to the Apostleship, so to speak, not by the Son of Man, sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but by the Son of God, to Him was given all power in heaven and on earth, calling all nations to Himself; and Barnabas, a senior member of the Jerusalem church, does not disagree with his young colleague in all this. And the Antiochian church soon presented an extraordinary spectacle not only for the pagan world, but also for the young Christian church. In fact, how long ago was it that Antioch, through its kings, wanted to establish its faith in Jerusalem and wipe out the law and faith in the God of Israel from the face of the earth. The king of Syria, in whose actions the Old Testament prophet depicted for us the deeds and fate of the Antichrist of the last days of the world, with formidable decrees and military force, plotted to turn Judea to the worship of the Hellenic gods, created a school in Jerusalem according to pagan laws, entered the sanctuary with pride and took the golden altar, and all the treasures of the temple, and the writings of his entire kingdom, let them be all people are one, and let each one leave his own law... And what now? Two people, without weapons, even without books, with one living word, the word of the Holy Spirit, come to the capital of Syria in order to overthrow Hellenic idolatry, supported here by many churches, and learning, and power. And their enterprise does not seem crazy, impracticable, because they have hope in the power of truth, in the power of God, in the promise of Jesus Christ. They cannot promise themselves that the transformation they undertake will not meet with objections, opposition, contradictions even from the believers in Jesus Christ themselves; but with the thought in the heart: I can do everything in the Lord Jesus who strengthens me, they boldly take on a great cause - and Antioch must be the first to experience the power of the right hand of God - and justify them, or destroy their cause. Where is this faith now? Eighteen centuries speak for us - and we look with timidity at what nihilism, the new Tübingen school, Strauss, Renan are doing or will do! – Or, Lord, is the last time approaching, when the kingdom of lies will come, when the father of lies will arm himself with all his powers to deceive, if possible even the elect? 3). But let us turn to the preachers of Antioch. What was the fruit of their preaching here? We are not talking about long-term consequences, about a whole series of St. hierarchs and martyrs, starting with Ignatius the God-Bearer, who came from here, - about the teachers of the Word of God, among whom Chrysostom shines, about the formation of an entire patriarchal district, - about the many monks in the vicinity of Antioch, who shone with their extraordinary exploits, among whom Simeon the Stylite rises above all. – We are not even talking about the many immediate consequences that appeared during the time of the Apostles themselves; about the spread from Antioch, as the main center, of missionary travel to pagan countries, about the influence of the Church of Antioch on the solution of the great question of the freedom of converted pagans from the Law of Moses, etc. The everyday writer of the Apostolic times and the Evangelist, whom the same Church of Antioch gave us, St. Luke, among the immediate consequences of the preaching of the Apostles Barnabas and Paul, mentions the appropriation by believers of the name Christians, and the active assistance to Christians of the Jerusalem church from the Christians of Antioch during the general famine. In the book of Acts, we read; For a whole year they gathered in church and taught quite a number of people; and the disciples in Antioch for the first time began to be called Christians (Acts 11:26). This testifies both to the rapid and significant successes of the Apostolic preaching in Antioch, and to the significant difference of the newly formed society, which lay in the name of Jesus Christ. “Carry yours,” says the Apostle, who were bought by nature at the price of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:20), and therefore you are Christ’s, you are Christians. I live not for anyone, but Christ lives in me and therefore I am Christ’s, I am a Christian. This is the deep meaning of this great naming. It is not only an external sign of confession, but an expression of the internal, inextricable connection of the believer with Jesus Christ, evidence of the complete penetration of His life, His power. – It may be true that this name was not invented by the believers in Christ themselves, but was adopted by them from the lips of unbelievers; but the Apostolic wisdom did not reject it; on the contrary, it extended it to all believers in Christ in Asia Minor, in Judea, in Rome, and in the whole world. Apostolic wisdom indicated in it how one who is called a Christian from the world should behave in the world: Sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts (1 Peter 3:15). If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed; If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed (1 Peter 4:14–16). – Previously, believers were called disciples, as those who accepted all the teachings from Jesus Christ, - brethren, as children of the one Heavenly Father, adopted by Him by Jesus Christ, - saints, as sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit and actively striving for holiness. The Christian name did not destroy, but combined the power and meaning of all these names. Does it show whose disciples we are? –Christ’s; for whom did they become brothers with each other? - according to Christ; Through whom alone can we become saints? – through Jesus Christ. The Church of Antioch gave us this high and sacred name. How well do we remember whose name we should be? Are we truly disciples of Jesus Christ? Are we truly brothers with each other? Are we truly saints in spirit and life? – If not, then are we truly Christians? Do we have the right to assign this name to ourselves? “A Christian does not have his own power,” says the shepherd of Antioch, St. Ignatius, who in each of his messages reminds everyone of this longed-for name; “He has no power over himself, but belongs to God.” Is it all about us? Another direct effect of the Apostolic preaching in Antioch was the generous offerings of alms in Jerusalem. In the newly formed Church of Antioch, the awareness of the responsibilities imposed by the name of a Christian was vividly reflected - and so, when Palestine was threatened by famine, the Christians of Antioch, each, according to their income, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea (Acts 11:26). Christianity has opened in the heart of the believer, in love, an inexhaustible source of remedies against poverty, misery, the proletariat, against violent communism, in a word, a peaceful and always ready cure against serious social ills. It says through the mouth of the Apostle to all who have the means to help: now your abundance is to fill the lack of those in need; and then, their excess to make up for your deficiency, so that there is uniformity; If only this equality was achieved not by violent robbery, but by the hand of mercy, submissive to the duty of the Christian conscience. It is not required, the Apostle adds, that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but that there should be equality (2 Cor. 8:13-15). Do not clog, do not choke, do not bury this source of healing water against public ailments. Otherwise, it will be what the prophet of God once threatened his people: and they will wander burdened and hungry, and being hungry they will boil with anger; and they will blaspheme their king and their God (Is. 8:21). What are these if not outcasts of society and faith, resounding with their cries in some Western countries? This is the lesson taught to us by the example of the first Church! – We have lost the habit of delving deeply into the history of the first glorious times of the Church of Christ; too deeply occupied with the interests of modern life; We talk too little about what is useful and necessary for us not only for this life, but also for eternity. Let us overcome our inertia in the matter of faith; let us arouse in ourselves the spirit of jealousy and initiative; let us arm ourselves with the power of the name of Christ against the sin that lives in us, so that the Lord Jesus Christ does not refuse to recognize us as His own before His Heavenly Father; With sincere love, let us testify that we are living parts of His body. Briefly, with the assistance of the grace of God, we will be Christians, according to the word of John the Theologian, not in word or language, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:18). - Amen. You might be interested in: