Daily Bread
Thursday, November 14, 2024
“It seems that we do not understand one thing: it is not good when we return the love of those who love us, yet hate those who hate us. We are not on the right path if we do this. We are the sons of light and love, the sons of God, his children. As such we must have His qualities and His attributes of love, peace, and kindness towards all.”
+ + Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives
Daily Scripture Readings
1 Corinthians 4:9-16 (Epistle, Apostle)
9 For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!
11 To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.
12 And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
13 being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.
15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
John 1:43-51 (Gospel, Apostle)
43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Holy and All-praised Apostle Philip (1st c.)
The Holy and All-praised Apostle Philip was a native of the city of Bethsaida in Galilee. He had a profound depth of knowledge of the Holy Scripture, and rightly discerning the meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah. Through the call of the Savior (John 1:43), Philip followed Him. The Apostle Philip is spoken about several times in the Holy Gospel: he brought to Christ the Apostle Nathaniel (i.e. Bartholomew, April 22, June 30, and August 25. See John. 1:46). The Lord asks him where to buy bread for five thousand men (John. 6: 5-7). He brought certain of the Hellenized Jews wanting to see Jesus (John. 12:21-22); and finally, at the Last Supper he asked Christ to show them the Father (John. 14:8).
After the Ascension of the Lord, the Apostle Philip preached the Word of God in Galilee, accompanying his preaching with miracles. Thus, he restored to life a dead infant in the arms of its mother. From Galilee he went to Greece, and preached among the Jews that had settled there. Some of them reported the preaching of the Apostle to Jerusalem. In response, some scribes arrived in Greece from Jerusalem, with one of the Jewish chief priests at their head, to interrogate the Apostle Philip.
The Apostle Philip exposed the lie of the chief priest, who said that the disciples of Christ had stolen away and hidden the body of Christ. Philip told instead how the Pharisees had bribed the soldiers on watch, to deliberately spread this rumor. When the Jewish chief priest and his companions began to insult the Lord and lunged at the Apostle Philip, they suddenly were struck blind. By his prayer the Apostle restored everyone’s sight. Seeing this miracle, many believed in Christ. The Apostle Philip provided a bishop for them, by the name of Narcissus (one of the Seventy Apostles, January 4).
From Greece the Apostle Philip went to Parthia, and then to the city of Azotus, where he healed an eye affliction of the daughter of a local resident named Nikoklides, who had received him into his home, and then baptized his whole family.
From Azotus the Apostle Philip set out to Syrian Hieropolis (there were several cities of this name) where, stirred up by the Pharisees, the Jews burned the house of Heros, who had taken in the Apostle Philip, and they wanted to kill the apostle. The apostle performed several miracles: the healing of the hand of the city official Aristarchus, withered when he attempted to strike the apostle; and restoring a dead child to life. When they saw these marvels, they repented and many accepted holy Baptism. After making Heros the bishop at Hieropolis, the Apostle Philip went on to Syria, Asia Minor, Lydia, Emessa, and everywhere preaching the Gospel and undergoing sufferings. Both he and his sister Mariamne (February 17) were pelted with stones, locked up in prison, and thrown out of villages.
Then the Apostle Philip arrived in the city of Phrygian Hieropolis, where there were many pagan temples. There was also a pagan temple where people worshiped an enormous serpent as a god. The Apostle Philip by the power of prayer killed the serpent and healed many bitten by snakes.
Among those healed was the wife of the city prefect, Amphipatos. Having learned that his wife had accepted Christianity, the prefect Amphipatos gave orders to arrest Saint Philip, his sister, and the Apostle Bartholomew traveling with them. At the urging of the pagan priests of the temple of the serpent, Amphipatos ordered the holy Apostles Philip and Bartholomew to be crucified.
Suddenly, an earthquake struck, and it knocked down all those present at the place of judgment. Hanging upon the cross by the pagan temple of the serpent, the Apostle Philip prayed for those who had crucified him, asking God to save them from the ravages of the earthquake. Seeing this happen, the people believed in Christ and began to demand that the apostles be taken down from the crosses. The Apostle Bartholomew was still alive when he was taken down, and he baptized all those believing and established a bishop for them.
But the Apostle Philip, through whose prayers everyone remained alive, except for Amphipatos and the pagan priests, died on the cross.
Mariamne his sister buried his body, and went with the Apostle Bartholomew to preach in Armenia, where the Apostle Bartholomew was crucified (June 11); Mariamne herself then preached until her own death at Lykaonia.
The holy Apostle Philip is not to be confused with Saint Philip the Deacon (October 11), one of the Seventy.
The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience
PRIEST PHILIP LEMASTERS
If there is any virtue that seems completely foreign to our culture today, it is patience. From fast food to cell phones, from transportation to losing weight, we want instant results and think that something is wrong if we do not get what we want immediately. Thoughtful people learn, however, that disappointments and delays are often actually good for us. They inspire us to see ourselves and the realities of life more clearly. But when impatience becomes a settled habit, it blinds us to the necessity of humble persistence in facing life’s challenges, both small and great.
Peter, James, and John were professional fishermen who had worked all night and caught nothing. They knew that it was time to wash their nets, go home, and try again tomorrow. But the Lord said, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter answered in a way that showed his frustration: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets.” When they did so, they caught so many fish that their nets broke and their boats began to sink. That was not only an unlikely and amazing scene; it also opened Peter’s eyes at least a bit to where He stood before the Lord, as he said to Christ, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” The Savior responded, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” Then Peter, James, and John left their boats and nets behind as they became the first apostles.
Though Peter became the head disciple, he struggled mightily in faith. He denied the Lord three times before His crucifixion and had earlier heard the stinging rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan!,” when he had rejected the message that Christ would be killed and rise from the dead. After His resurrection, the Lord restored Peter by asking him three times if he loved Him and commanding him to “feed My sheep” in fulfilling his ministry. (Jn. 21: 15-17) Peter was the first bishop of the Church in Antioch and in Rome, where he made the ultimate witness for the Savior as a martyr. He surely did not get everything right the first time. At many points in his discipleship, he must have been as frustrated as he had been as a fisherman who had worked all night and caught nothing. But despite his many failures in understanding what kind of Messiah he was following, Peter did not allow pride to keep him from accepting the Lord’s forgiveness and restoration. From the time the Savior first called him to the end of his earthly life, St. Peter kept letting down his nets and surely being shocked beyond belief that the Lord was still with him and working through him despite his less than perfect faith.
Saint Paul reminded the Corinthians that “now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” He meant that we must not put off faithfulness to Jesus Christ until we think that our faith is perfect or that the circumstances of our lives are as we would like them to be. He described the ministry of the apostles as requiring “great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger…in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
By the conventional standards of this world, people like Sts. Peter and Paul were failures who acquired no wealth or power. They threw their lives away out of devotion to an obscure rabbi of first-century Palestine. There would never be an ideal time to be faithful to Him, for the Lord’s Cross would always remain foolishness in the eyes of the world. But had Peter not obeyed the command on that particular day, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch,” he would not have opened himself to receive the blessing of the great catch of fish. Remember that it was this shocking scene that awakened in Peter’s soul at least a partial awareness of who he was before Christ, for he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” That is how he gained the measure of spiritual clarity that he needed in order to begin the long and difficulty journey of serving Christ.
Too often, we have less patience and faith before the challenges and disappointments of our lives than Peter did. Too often, we convince ourselves that it is pointless to persist in obeying Christ as best we can because our nets apparently remain empty of the blessings that we want for ourselves, our loved ones, and our world. Too often, we impatiently conclude that there is no point in persisting in the difficult struggle of faithfulness to the Lord because we are not getting the quick results that we want. To view the Christian faith in that way, however, is to make it a path for serving ourselves, not the Lord Who reigns from a Cross and an empty tomb. We will never enter His Kingdom by refusing all that does not operate on our schedules or according to our preferences.
Our calling, like that of Peter and the first disciples, is simply to obey Christ’s command to follow Him. When we stumble in doing so, we must cultivate the humble recognition of Peter, who said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” When we recognize that we have distorted the way of Christ into a path for serving ourselves, we must offer the Jesus Prayer from the depths of our hearts as we reorient ourselves toward true faithfulness. When we are tempted to abandon any of the basic practices of the Christian life because they do not appear to produce the results that we would like, we must humbly persist in them out of obedience and grow in our awareness that sharing in the life of Christ is not a magical path to achieving any goal of this life.
There is no guarantee of a net full of fish, of course, and the point of that miracle was not to make Peter successful in his line of work. It was, instead, to call him, James, and John as apostles who would become “fishers of men.” It was to draw them into the ministry of the Kingdom of God for the edification of the Church and the salvation of the world. They had to leave everything behind and endure profound trials, which revealed their need for greater spiritual strength. Our vocations are far humbler than theirs, but we must trust that Christ is preparing us to become “fishers of men” through our own struggles in ways that we do not fully understand. We can give up and say that there is no point in pursuing a religion that does not quickly solve all our problems in life, but to do so is to refuse to accept that “now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” regardless of how well we think that things are going. Now is the time to let down our nets, even though we have fished all night, caught nothing, and would rather simply go home. We do not know the particulars of what God will do when we offer ourselves to Him in patient obedience, but we must trust that doing so will enable us to share more fully in the healing of the human person that Christ has brought to the world.
Looking to the example of the apostles, let us persevere in the daily struggle to be faithful even as we know that we are sinful people who can ask only for the Lord’s mercy. The greater awareness we have of our own brokenness, the more patient trust we will have that God is filling our nets as they need to be filled for our salvation and that of the world. Let us persist in letting them down for a catch today and every day of our lives. That is the only way that we will grow in our participation in the life of Christ and become those who draw others to the blessedness of His Kingdom.
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 11/11: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday 11/12: no services or events
Wednesday 11/13: no services or events
Thursday 11/14: Matins 8:30 a.m.; Men’s Group 7pm
Friday 11/15: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Saturday 11/16: Choir Workshop 4-6 pm; Catechumen class 4:30; Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday 11/17: Divine Liturgy 9: 15 a.m.
