Pope Shenouda III series
8
THE FEAST
OF
THE CROSS
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Translated from the Arabic 2nd edition September 1999
Name of the book: The Feast of the Cross
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Second Edition: September 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset)
Deposition number at "The Library": 10664/1997
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 44 - 8
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen
In this pamphlet, you read about:
The importance and the spiritual significance
of the Cross.
The Cross in the life of Christ.
The Cross in the lives of the apostles
and all the saints
and in the lives of the fathers monks.
The glories of the Cross.
The spiritual meanings of the Cross.
The theological and doctrinal meanings.
How to bear a cross in practical life.
Saint Helen who discovered the Cross.
Pope Shenouda III
The Church celebrates the feast of the Cross on the 17th of Tot, (27th or 28th of September), the day of the apparition of the Cross to the Emperor Constantin, and on the 10th of Baramhat (19th of March), the day when the Empress Helen found the wood of the Holy Cross.
We want to-day to speak about the spiritual meaning of the Cross, and about the importance and benediction of the Cross, in our lives.
The Cross is every difficulty which we suffer in view of our love for God, or for our love for people, for the Kingdom of God in general.
THE LORD CHRIST AND THE CROSS
The Lord invited to bear the Cross and said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24) (Mark 8:34). And He said to the rich young man: "Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, ....... and come, take up the cross, and follow Me" (Mark 10:21).
He made the bearing of the Cross a condition for the discipleship to Him.
He said: "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).
He Himself, during all the period of His Incarnation on earth, lived bearing the Cross.
Since His Nativity, Herod wanted to kill Him, and He run away with His mother to Egypt. When He began his mission, he suffered the fatigue of the service, and had "nowhere to lay His head" (Luke 9: 58). He lived a life of pain, so that Isaiah said about Him that He is: "A Man of sorrow and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). He was bitterly persecuted by the Jews. Once they "took up stones again to stone Him" (John 10:31). Another time they wanted to "throw Him down over the cliff" (Luke 4:29). As for their insults and their accusation of Him, they are very numerous. All these are crosses which are other than the Cross on which He was crucified........
THE CROSS IN THE LIVES OF SAINTS
The disciples of Christ also placed the Cross before their eyes.
They preached continually....... and said about that: "but we preach Christ crucified" although He is "to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:23). The apostle saint Paul said: "For I determined not to know anyting among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). He rather boasted in the Cross saying: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).
Even the angel who announced the Resurrection, used this expression " Jesus who was crucified". He said to the two Mariam: "I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. he is not here; for He is risen, as He said" (Matt. 28:5). Thus he called Him "Jesus who was crucified" although He was already risen. The expression " who was crucified" remained attached to him, and our fathers the apostles used it and concentrated their predication on it. As saint Peter said to the Jews "know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).
The Cross is the narrow gate in which the Lord invited us to enter (Matt.7:13).
He said to us:
"In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33);
"And you will be hated by all for my name's sake" (Matt. 10:22);
"yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service" (John 16:2);
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own.Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).
Thus the apostle saint Paul taught: "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).
The life of the Cross is evident in the lives of the martyrs, the abbots, and the ascetics.
In view of the faith, the martyrs and the confessors suffered unbearable torments and agonies. The majority of the early apostles and bishops marched in the way of martyrdom.
When the Lord called Saul of Tarsus to become an apostle for the gentiles, He said about him "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9:16). We can mention as an example, the apostolic saint Athanassius of the abbots and the cross which they carried. He was exiled three times and he was exposed to bad accusations; and saint John Chrysostom who was also exiled...... and the incarceration and ostracisation to which the fathers were exposed.
As for the fathers monks, the Church surnames them "the cross bearers".
They have borne the cross of solitude and aloofness from every human consolation, and the cross of ascetism in which they were denuded from every corporal desire. They suffered the pains of hunger, thirst, cold, heat, poverty, and penury, in view of the greatness of their love the King Christ. They also suffered the afflictions and the warfare of the devils in various ways and kinds, as in the life of saint Antonios, and the lives of the the wandering anchorites.
THE CROSS
PRECEDES RESURRECTION
Christ was elevated over the level of the earth in His Crucifixion.
He was also elevated over the level of the tomb in His Resurrection.
He was elevated over the level of all the world in His Ascension to heaven and in His sitting at the right side of the Father. He was rather elevated over the level of this heaven.
These are degrees of elevation, all of which He had begun by the Cross.
Rather before that, He was elevated over the level of self-preoccupation in His Nativity. He "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 2:7).
The Cross of the Lord preceded His Resurrection; and His making Himself of no reputation preceded His glory.
Pain always precedes the crowns. Thus the apostle saint Paul said:
"if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Rom. 8:17).
Thus he showed us the value and the results of pain. He rather considered pain as a gift in life to us from God. He said:
"For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Philippians 1:29). Pain is considered to be a gift because of its crowns.
Our Lord established the bearing of the cross as a condition to discipleship to Him. He said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up the cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24). He said more than that: "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).
Such as the bearing of the cross is a condition for life with God, so also it is a test of seriousness and steadfastness in His way.
The tribulations to which the faithful man is exposed during his life, are a test of the extent of his steadfastness in faith. Thus the Lord said: "in the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). While He was on his way to the Cross, He permitted that his disciples should encounter the bearing of the cross, so that the extent of their steafastness should appear. He said: "Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31).
For this reason, the Holy Church has placed the martyrs in the highest order of saints
because they were those who have suffered the cross more than all the others, in view of their constancy in the faith. The Church places also with them the confessors who confessed the faith and suffered many torments, although they did not obtain the crown of martyrdom.
If you bear a cross, accept that joyfully because of the crowns which you will obtain, if you do not complain and do not doubt.
It was said about the sufferings of Christ our Lord that He "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). Here we find the Cross with joy in enduring it, and glory resulting from it.......
You will encounter many kinds of crosses. Among them, there are exertion, toleration, patience, fatigue in service and in repentance, and also discipline from God and from the fathers.......
Do not grumble then, whenever you bear a cross; and do not think that spiritual life must be easy, and its way covered with flowers.
Otherwise, on what account will you be rewarded in eternity? And also, what is the meaning of the words of the Lord concerning the narrow gate (Matt. 7:13)?
CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A CROSS
In fact, christian life is practically a journey to Golgotha; and chrisianity without a cross is really not christianity.
Those who have received their good things on earth, will have no share in the Kingdom, as the story of the rich man and Lazarus explains to us (Luke 16:25). We say that, as regards individuals, just as we say it as regards groups and churches also. For christianity is a participation in the sufferings of Christ, as the apostle saint Paul said: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Philippians 3:10). He said also about this participation in the sufferings:
"I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
So that if you want to live with Christ, you must be crucified with Christ, or you must be crucified for Him, and suffer for Him, even if that would lead to die for Him also.
THE CROSS AND ITS GLORIES
In christianity, you suffer, you find pleasure in suffering, and you obtain crowns for your suffering which is transformed into glory.
Christianity is not a cross which you carry, and grumble and protest in your complaint! No, but it is the love of the cross, the love of suffering and sacrifice and fatigue for the Lord and for the expansion of His kingdom. It was said about the Lord Christ: "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame"(Heb.12:2).
The apostle saint Paul said: "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake" (2 Cor. 12:10).... And after having been scourged, the fathers apostles "departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41)....... But about the glories of sufferings, the apostle says:
"if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Rom. 8:17).
Therefore he said after that: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). And thus the apostle saint Peter said: "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed" (1 Peter 3:14).
Hence sufferings are accompanied by blessings. The Lord Christ has mentionned them saying: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5: 11-12).
Here we find that the sufferings for the Lord are associated with joy and jubilation and with the celestial reward.
Truly: because after the cross, there is resurrection and ascension, and also sitting at the right side of the Father.
If christianisty were only a cross, without glories, people would have been tired, and as the apostle said: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" (1 Cor. 15:19). But christians in their bearing of the cross, look at the eternal glories "while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).
Therefore, with the external fatigue, there is peace and consolation.
Saint Stephan at the time of his lapidation, saw the heavens opened, "and saw the glory of God" (Acts 7: 55,56). What joy had he at that time....!
There is another joy which the martyrs felt; it is that they had completed the days of their expatriation on earth and the moment of their encounter with the Lord approached......Some of them saw the crowns and the glories....... and some others had holy visions that consoled them...
We do not separate the cross from its rejoicing and its glories: also we do not separate it from the assistance and grace of God.
The christian might carry a cross, but he does not carry it alone, and God does not leave him alone. There is a divine assistance that supports and upholds. It is that assistance which stood with the martyrs till they supported the sufferings, and which stands with the faithful in every tribulation. There is the encouraging expression of the Lord: "Do no be afraid ....... for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you" (Acts 18: 9,10); "Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).
"They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you", says the Lord, "to deliver you" (Jer. 1:19).
THE LOVE OF CHRISTIANITY
FOR THE CROSS
The cross is an emblem to which every christian clings because of its spiritual and doctrinal meanings.
We suspend it on the churches, we include it in all our sculptures, we suspend it on our breasts, we make its sign on ourselves, we begin our prayers with it, we sign it on our food, we sanctify with it all that we possess. The men of the clegy carry it in their hands, and they bless the people with it. The cross is used in all the ecclesiastical sacraments, and in all the signings and the consecrations, in the belief that all the blessings of the New Testament came as a result of the Cross. The clothes of the clerical men are adorned with the cross, not just for ornamentation, but for its benediction and its power. We celebrate two feasts for the Cross, and we carry the cross during the processions and the celebrations.
We see that there is a power in the signing of the Cross, which the devils dread.
All the pains of the devil to ruin human beings, has been lost by means of the deliverance which was realised on the Cross. Therefore Satan dreads the sign of the cross..... on condition that the signing of the cross is done with faith and reverence. The apostle saint Paul said: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
That is why a christian fortifies himself with the signing of the cross.
HOW TO BEAR PRACTICALLY
YOUR CROSS
The cross is a sign of love, bestowal, sacrifice, and redemption, which you carry each time you are tired in view of the practice of these virtues.
Try to get tired for the rest of another, and for his deliverance and his service; and be confident that God does never forget the fatigue of charity, "and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor" (1 Cor. 3:8).... Train yourself to give: whatever you bestow and support and sacrifice..... and train yourself to give from your necessities, as the blessed widow had done (Luke 21:4)........ Get tired in your service, because it is as much as you get tired, so much your love will appear, and therefore your sacrifice.
2. The Cross is also a sign of sufferings and endurance:
The sufferings which the Lord endured for us, whether the sufferings of the body, of which He said: "They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones" (Ps. 22: 16-17) ....... or the sufferings of shame which He joyfullly endured for us, that is He was rejoicing for our salvation.
Therfore the apostle said about Him: "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb: 12:2). How great is the endurance when it is joyfully done. That is a lesson for us.
While you suffer a cross, if you endure the tribulation of the cross for the Lord, or if you encounter persecution because of your justice, or if you are hit with disease or weakness for that...... likewise if you endure the wearisome deeds of people without taking revenge for yourself, but rather you turn the other cheek, and you walk the second mile, and do not resist an evil person (Matt. 5:39), but rather you act with patience, ... and patience is a cross, ... whether your endurance is within the circle of the family, or in the field of service, or in relation to your work.
3. You will bear a cross, if you crucify the flesh with its passions (Gal. 5:24).
You make efforts to crucify a craving or a guilty desire, and you conquer yourself. You crucify your thoughts each time they want to make you wandering. Likewise you restrain your senses, you bridle your tongue, you constrain yourself, and forbid your body to take food, enduring hunger, keeping away from every appetising food, and from every corporal pleasure and from the love of money.
4. You bear your cross in your self-denial, by taking the last place,
by not seeking dignity, by your giving up your rights, by not taking your reward on earth, by preferring others to yourself in everything with love that "does not seek its own" (1 Cor. 13:5), by humility and renouncement, and by keeping away from praise and dignity.
5. You bear your cross by bearing the sins of others, because our Lord the Christ has done so.
There is no objection that you would bear the guilt of another one and be punished for that instead of him; or that you bear the responsibilities of another one, and to carry them on instead of him. And as saint Paul said to Philemon about Onesimus: "But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, an writing with my own hand, I will repay" (Philemon 18-19)...... As much as you can, participate in the sufferings of others, and carry them in their place. Be a cyrenian bearing the cross of another.
SPIRITUAL MEANINGS
OF THE CROSS
When we make the sign of the cross, we remember many of the theological and spiritual meanings which are connected to it.
1. We remember the love of God for us, who accepted death instead of us, in view of our salvation. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Is. 53:6). When we make the sign of the cross, we remember "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
2. And in the Cross, we remember our sins.
Our sins which He has borne on the Cross, and for which He Incarnated and was crucified.......
With this remembrance, we become humiliated, our souls become contrite, and we thank for the price which He paid for us "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20).
3. And in the Cross, we remember the divine justice:
How forgiveness was not on account of justice. But the divine justice took his right on the Cross. We do not then consider sin as a slight matter, the sin whose price is such as that.
4. In our signing of the Cross, we declare our discipleship to this crucified One.
Those who take the cross simply by its spiritual meaning, inside the heart, without any apparent sign, do not openly manifest this discipleship which we declare by signing the cross, by carrying the cross on our breasts, by kissing the cross in front of everybody, by drawing it on our hands, and by raising it above the places in which we worship.
With all this, we openly declare our faith, and we are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ in front of people, but rather we boast of it, we hold fast to it, we celebrate feasts for it ....... Even without speaking, our plain aspect manifests our faith......
5. We do not make the sign of the cross on ourselves in a silent manner, but we say with that: In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Thus each time we declare our faith in the Holy Trinity who is One God for ever to eternity, amen. Thus the Holy Trinity is continually in our thoughts, and that is not available to those who do not make the sign of the cross as we do.
6. In making the sign of the cross, we also declare our belief in Incarnation and Redemption:
When we make the sign of the cross from upward to downward, and from the left side to the right side, we remember that God has come down from heaven downward to our earth, and transported people from the left side to the right side, from obscurity to light, and from death to life; and how many are the meditations which come to our hearts and minds from the signing of the cross!
7. We remember forgiveness in the Cross,
how our sins were forgiven on the Cross, and how our Lord addressed the heavenly Father saying (while He was on the Cross): "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luc 23:34)....
8. In the signing of the cross, there is a religious instruction for our sons and for others:
Whoever makes the sign of the cross, when he prays, when he enters the church, when he eats, when he sleeps, and at every moment, he remembers the Cross. This remembrance is spiritually useful and scripturally desirable. In it there is also an instruction for people, that Christ was crucified, and an instruction specially for our small children who grow from their childhood being used to the cross.
9. By making the sign of the cross we preach the death of the Lord for us, conforming to his commandment.
This is the commandment of the Lord who has redeemed us, to preach His "death till He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26)....... In making the sign the cross we remember His death at all times, and we keep remembering Him till He comes.
We also remember Him in the sacrament of Eucharist. But this sacrament is not done every moment, while we can make the sign of the cross at every moment, remembering the death of Christ for our sake.....
10. In making the sign of the cross, we remember that the retribution of sin is death:
because otherwise Christ would not have died; "we were dead in trespasses" (Eph. 2:5). But Christ died instead us upon the Cross and gave us life. Having paid the price on the Cross, He said to the Father: "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34).
11. In making the sign of the cross, we remember the love of God for us:
We remember that the cross is a sacrifice of love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)....... and we remember that "God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.......... and we were reconciled toGod through the death of His Son" (Rom. 5: 8,10).
In the Cross, we remember the love of God for us, because "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John: 15:13).
12. We make the sign of the cross because it gives us power.
The apostle saint Paul felt that power of the Cross, and said: "by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). And he also said: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
Note that he did not say that the crucifixion is the power of God, but he said that the simple word of the cross is the power of God.
Therfore when we make the sign of the cross, and when we mention the cross, we are filled with power; because we remember that the Lord trampled death by the cross, and He granted life to everybody, and forced and defeated Satan. Therefore....
we make the sign of the cross, because Satan dreads it:
All the labour of Satan since he fighted Adam until the end of time, has been lost on the Cross, because the Lord has paid the price, and erased all the sins of people with His blood, for those who believe and obey. Therefore Satan whenever he sees the cross, he is terrified and remembers his greatest defeat and the loss of his labour, and so he is ashamed and runs away.
Thus all the sons of God constantly use the sign of the cross, considering that it is the sign of conquest and victory, that it is the power of God. As for our part, we are filled with power inside. But the enemy outside is scared.
And as in ancient times the bronze serpent was lifted up, as a healing for people and salvation from death, even so the Lord of glory was lifted up on the Cross. (John 3:14). Thus is the sign of the cross in its effect.
14. We make the sign of the cross, and take its blessing:
In ancient times, the cross was the sign of malediction and death because of sin....... But on the Cross, the Lord bore all our maledictions, in order to grant us the benediction of the reconciliation with God (Rom. 5:10), and the benediction of the new life. Therefore all the gracious things of the New Testament come from the Cross.
Therefore the clergy men use this cross in the giving of benediction, as an indication that the benediction is not issued from them personally, but from the cross of the Lord who has entrusted them to use it for granting benediction, and because they take their ministry from the ministry of Him who was crucified. All the blessings of the New Testament follow the cross of the Lord and its effect.
15. Therefore we use the cross in all the holy sacraments of Christianity,
because they all have their source in the merits of the blood of Christ on the cross.
Without the cross, we could not deserve to come near to God as sons in Baptism; and we could not deserve the communion of his body and blood in the mystery of Eucharist (1 Cor. 11:26), and we could not enjoy the blessings of any mystery from the mysteries of the Church.
16. We pay attention to the Cross in order to remember our participation in it.
We remember the word of the apostle saint Paul: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). And also his word: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformet to His death" (Philippians 3:10). Here we ask ourselves when shall we enter into participation with the sufferings of the Lord and shall be crucified with Him.
And here we remember the thief who was crucified with Him, and deserved to be with Him in paradise. Probably he is in paradise singing with the song that saint Paul said later "I have been crucified with Christ......."
All our wishes are that we ascend on the cross with Christ, and to boast about this cross which we remember now whenever we touch it with our senses.
17. We honor the cross, because it is a subject of joy for the Father:
The Father who has accepted Christ on the cross with all joy, as a sin sacrifice and also as "a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord" (Lev.1: 5,13,17).
The Lord Christ has satisfied the Father with the perfection of His life on earth, but He entered into the fullness of this satisfaction on the Cross, where He "became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8).
Each time we look at the cross, we remember the perfection of obedience, and the perfection of subjection, in order to imitate the Lord Christ in his obedience, to the point of death.
As the cross was a subject of joy for the Father, so also it was a subject of joy as regards the Son who was crucified, of whom it was said: "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb. 12:2).
Thus was the fullness of Christ's joy in His crucifixion. May we be like that.
18. In the cross, "we go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13:12)
with the same feelings which we have in the holy week.......and in that, we remember what was said about the prophet Moses: "esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. 11:26). The reproach of Christ is His crucifixion and His sufferings.
19. On the cross, we remember the salvation which the thief who was crucified with the Lord obtained:
That gives us a wonderful hope. How could a man be saved in the last hours of his life on earth, and get a promise to enter the paradise.
How the Lord with His spiritual influence on this thief, had been able to draw him to Himself, and remember his faith and his confession, without remembering any of his previous sins.
How great is that hope which was realised on the cross.
20. We bear the cross which reminds us of His second coming:
As it has been mentionned in the gospel about the end of the world and the coming of the Lord: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven" (that is the cross).........and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds....." (Matt. 24:30).
Let us remember the sign of the Son of Man on earth, so long as we expect this sign of His in heaven in His majestic coming.
THE JUST QUEEN
SAINT HELEN
We remember her on the occasion of
the Feast of the Cross
The Orthodox Coptic Church celebrates her feast on the 9th of Bashans, (the 17th of May), the day of her death in the year 327 AD, and we also remember her on the 17th of Tot, (the 27th or the 28th of September), the day of the feast of the Cross.
The Church also remembers her in the assembly of saints in the prayers of the "Psalmodia", asking for her prayers and the prayers of her son the Emperor Constantin...... Our brothers the Orthodox Greeks build churches on her name, and they celebrate her feast and the feast of her son on the 21st of Ayar. The Latin Church celebrates her feast on the 18th of Aab (August).
Her son Emperor Constantin honored her. He gave her the surname "Augusta", meaning queen. He gave her the power over the Imperial treasures. She spent generously and liberally on the construction of churches. She gave to the poor and the needy persons and cities.
The historian Eusebius of Cesarea said about her, that during her wandering in the Eastern States, she presented numerous proofs of her magnanimity as an Empress, and of her imperial generosity upon the inhabitants of the various cities as communities and upon the individuals, as well as she offered many aids with the utmost lavishness. She gave money to some, and big quantities of clothes to others. She liberated some from prisons, or from the slavery of service in the mines. She delivered others from the violence of persecution, and brought back some others from exile (K3 F44).
She was very religious. She went to church, with simple modest clothes, although she was an empress, and she stood with all veneration among the masses. She was constant in her prayers, and she attended the religious celebrations, and lived as a worshipper more than she lived as a queen. She visited the holy places, bearing the fatigues of travel in her old age.
The Lord suggested to her in a vision, to go to Jerusalem, and to search exactly for the place of the glorious Cross.
She went there, and inquired, and discovered three crosses. Saint Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, accompanied her. God manifested the holy cross with a miracle, as it appears in the synaxaire of the 17th of Tot.
She placed the cross in a golden box, and gave it to the bishop, and she kept a part of it for her son Constantin who placed some of the holy nails in his protective covering.
Saint Helen constructed a church in Behtlehem, at the cave where our Lord was born, and she built another one on the Mount of Olives, at the place of the Ascension of the Saviour.
She began the construction of the church of the Resurrection......
Her son the emperor Constantin presented to her all that was necessary for her holy work. He sent letters in relation to that, to the governors and to the bishops.
This saint specified numerous unalienable properties for the churches and the monasteries, and for spending on the poor. She celebrated a feast in Jerusalem for the sacred virgins, and she herself served them.
She built a church on the name of the martyr saint Lucianos in the town where she was born, which her son called Helenopolis on her name Helen, in her honor.
This saint died in 327 AD at the age of 84 years. She wrote her testament to her son the Emperor, and to her grandsons the ceasars, inciting them to be firm in the life of faith and justice.
SOME VERSETS TO BE STUDIED AND RECALLED FROM MEMORY
ABOUT THE CROSS
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
"And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24).
"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
".......having made peace through te blood of His cross" (Col. 1:20).
"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus-Christ and Him crucified" (1Cor. 2:2).
"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).
"knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him" (Rom. 6:6).
"for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8).
Showing posts with label english translations of the books of HH Pope Shenouda III. Show all posts
Showing posts with label english translations of the books of HH Pope Shenouda III. Show all posts
Saturday, 21 April 2007
saints PETER AND PAUL
Pope Shenouda III series
7
THE TWO SAINTS PETER & PAUL
(ON THE FEAST'S DAY OF THE APOSTLES
WHICH IS THEIR FEAST)
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
First print: Cairo, July 1997
Name of the book: The two saints Peter & Paul
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: July 1997
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Deposition number at "The Library": 8476/97
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 43 - X
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
The feast of the the apostles (5 Abib) is the feast of the martyrdom of S. Peter & S. Paul.
I shall talk to you about them, not as regards History, but as a spiritual life which can be a lesson.
What were the points of resemblance, and the points of difference in their lives? and how God had chosen these two kinds for the building up of His kingdom?
Both are two apostles, and martyrs. Each of them has his own style. But both the two styles were for the glory of God.
Pope Shenouda III
PREFACE
On the occasion of the feast of the apostles, I had wished to talk to you about the apostles in a general manner. But I have found that this is greater than to be contained in a summary pamphlet like this one.
So I preferred to write for you only about these two great apostles: S. Peter & S. Peter; especially that the feast of the apostles (5 Abib) is the feast of the martyrdom of S. Peter & S. Paul.
As for the talk about our fathers the apostles in a general manner, there will be a special pamphlet for that, later on, if the Lord permits and we live.
And believe me, a single pamphlet is not enough even for our limitation only to these two apostles, but we shall talk very briefly.
We do not write History in this pamphlet, because History would need volumes, and researches, and maps....
But I shall write to you here about the spiritual lessons and not about History.
That is what we can learn, as much as it is possible, from the lives of the apostles. If we turn to History, it will be in a secondary manner.
On the occasion of the feast of the apostles
Pope Shenouda III
The Church celebrates the memory of the martyrdom of these two saints on the 5th of Abib, which is the 12th of July.This feast is called in our Church by the name of "the feast of the apostles". Its date is unchanged in every year.
The Church venerates these two apostles very profoundly; and praises them and honors them exceedingly; especially in the prayer of "the partition" or "the division" which pertains to the fast of the apostles and to the feast of the apostles, which we pray during the holy mass.
Although there are not many churches which are called by their two names together, there is a church which is called by their two names in the region of Amba Roueiss in Cairo, and another church which is called by their two names in Los Angeles, California, USA.
These two saints represent two distinguished kinds as regards the personality, the mission, and the style. Each one of them has distinct characteristics.
THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE
Peter was among the first whom the Lord had chosen to work with Him (Matt. 10).
And Paul was not among the twelve, and not even among the seventy apostles, but the Lord chose him lastly, after the resurrection and years after the choice of Matthias......
He did not follow Christ during His predication on earth. He rather said about that: "Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor. 15: 8-9).
And although he was the last in his call, yet he "laboured more abundantly than they all" (1 Cor. 15:10). That shows that it is not a matter of precedence, but according to the amount of weariness from exertion for God.
A person may not be the most ancient among the workers in ministry, and nevertheless he may be the strongest of all the workers.
John the Baptist was not the first prophet in the Old Testament, but he was the last of them in their chronological order. Nevertheless it was said that "among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:11).
St. Augustin said to the Lord: "I have been very much late to love You". And with his lateness, he was more profound than millions who had preceded him.
Peter was born in Bethsaide, and his family lived in Capernaum (Kafr Nahum).
Paul was born in Tarsus of Cilicia. He went to Jerusalem in the early years of his youth to complete his religious instruction, in order to study the Law at the hands of one of the great teachers" (Acts 22:3).
The apostle Peter was a married man. It was mentioned in the Gospel that Christ healed his step-mother from fever (Matt. 8: 14-15). In his journeys for the predication, he wandered accompanied by his wife as a sister (1 Cor. 9:5).
But the apostle Paul was a virgin. (1 Cor. 7:7).
He called for the preference of virginity. "But each one has his own gift from God", "as the Lord has called each one...... Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called" (1 Cor. 7: 7,17,20).
That proves that the Lord calls everybody to His service, whether they are married like Peter, or virgins like Paul.
Peter began his life with the Lord Christ with love, confidence, and faith. But on the contrary: Paul began by enemity, as a persecutor of the Church and of everyone who followed Christ, so that the Lord, when He met him on the road to Damascus, began his conversation with him by reprimanding him saying: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4).
Saint Peter was a simple man, a fisherman (Matt. 4:18). He was ignorant and was not instructed into culture or science. He is one of whom "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise" (1 Cor. 27). It was said of him, of him and saint John, "that they were uneducated and untrained men" (Acts 4:13).
But saint Paul was one of the learned of his age, who was educated at the University of Tarsus, and brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He was well-known for his culture and for reading many books. (Acts 26:24).
That shows us that the Lord equally employs everybody for His kingdom, the learned and the simple. The important thing for them is to be useful ustensils for the work of His grace......
There was also a distinction in the mission of each of the two saints Peter and Paul.
The apostle Peter began his ministry while he was old-aged. Perhaps he was the oldest of all the apostles. Therefore they venerated his old age. As regards age, he said about saint Mark: "Mark my son " (1 Peter 5:13).
But saint Paul was smaller than saint Peter in age.
Also among the points of difference: the apostle Paul formed for himself disciples in a greater number than Peter did.
Among his disciples were Timothy and Titus to whom he sent epistles.
Also among his disciples, were Luke, Aristarchus, Tichycus, Carpus, the deaconess Phebe, Achilla and Priscilla......and others.
Mark followed both of them: first he followed Peter, then he remained with Paul to the end of his life (2 Tim. 4:11).
It was said about saint Peter that he was "the apostle of circumcision"
He was confided in "the gospel of circumcision", that is the predication to the Jews; while Paul was confided in "the Gospel of uncircoumsision", that is the predication to the Gentiles.
Such is what the apostle saint Paul said: "the gospel of the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter, for He who worked effectivey in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles" (Gal. 2: 7-8).
The Lord said to Paul: "Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). And He also said to him: "for as you testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome" (Rom.23:11).
Paul wrote an epistle to the Romans, and some epistles to the churches of the Gentiles.
Peter wrote to the Jews "the pilgrims of the Dispersion" (1 Peter 1:1).
Saint Paul wrote 14 epistles which consisted of 100 chapters.
Saint Peter wrote only two epistles which consisted of 8 chapters.
Saint Peter was simple in his writings.
As for saint Paul, saint Peter said about his epistles "in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).
Saint Paul talked about theological questions like the justification, the renovation, Law and grace, the baptism, the priesthood, choice and rejection, living as Jews ...... matters which saint Peter did not approach.
Saint Peter was impulsive.
That was probably because of his great zeal, or his jealousy. The Lord praised him when he testified of Him that He is the Son of the living God (Matt. 16: 15:19).
But many times the Lord reprimanded him for his impulsiveness.
Such as when He reprimanded him afterwards, when the Lord was talking about his future sufferings and His killing by the Jews. Then Peter said impetuously: "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to you! Then the Lord rebuked him saying: "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men"(Matt. 16: 21:23).
Peter also was implusive during the Lord's washing of His apostles' feet. He refused and "said to Him: You shall never wash my feet!" But when "Jesus answered him: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Simon Peter said to Him: "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head"...... (John 13: 8-10).
Another time when the Lord Christ was arrested, Peter "having a sword", impulsively "drew it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. So, Jesus said to Peter: "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" (John 18: 10-11). And He also said to him: "for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matt. 26: 51,52).
Thus we see that the Lord has chosen him in spite of his impulsiveness, then He has transformed this impulsiveness into good since the day of the Pentecost.
Then we see Peter beginning to speak in that day, and he explained what was happening to the people (Acts 2), and he called them to faith. He also began to speak on the day of the healing of the lame, and rebuked the Jews because they had preferred a murderer to the Lord Christ, before Pilate (Acts 3:12-26).
He came forward in many occasions, as when he said: "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Act 5:29).
Thus the Lord employed the impulsiveness ot Peter for the good.
As for saint Paul, he was also enthusiastic, but without impulsiveness.....
Because of the difference in their style of work, saint Paul once reprimanded saint Peter himself:
He explained this in the second chapter of his epistle to the Galatians saying: "Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before cetain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all: "If you being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?" (Gal. 2: 11-14).
Nevertheless the two saints participated together and resembled each other in substantial matters like zeal and martyrdom.
POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE
Both were Jews.
The apostle Paul mentioned that he was a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5).
The Bible did not mention from which tribe was the apostle Peter.
Both were called by the Lord.
Peter was "casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them: [Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed Him" (Matt. 4: 18-20).
The Lord called Paul as "he journeyed to Damascus, and suddently a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground" (Acts 9: 1--4), and the Lord called him, sending him first to Ananias of Damascus.
And as the Lord Jesus-Christ called him, also the Holy Spirit called him, and said: "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2).
Likewise also God the Father called him. The apostle saint Paul
said about that: "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me" (Gal. 1: 15-17).
Thus we see that the apostle saint Paul was called by the three Persons, each separately.
Although both the saint apostles Peter and Paul were likewise called by God, yet the manner of the call was different; and also the number of the calls.
The Lord changed the name of each of them:
Peter was called Simeon, son of Jonah (John 21:15). The Lord called him by the name of Peter. (Matt. 16: 17-18).
The name of Saul was changed into Paul. At the beginning of his call, the Lord called him by the name of Saul (Acts 9:4). During his predication, He called him by the name of Paul (Acts 23:11).
The Holy Spirit came upon each of them; and each of them spoke with tongues.
It is evident that the apostle Peter spoke languages on the day of Pentecost, for the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him. The apostle Paul said in his epistle to the Corinthians: "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all" (1 Cor. 14:18). And it was said in the story of Elymas the sorcerer: "Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said......" (Acts 13:9).
Each of them had the power to give the Holy Spirit.
It was said about Peter and John, that the apostles who were in Jerusalem, sent them to Samaria when it believed: "Then they laid hands on them, and the received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:17).
It was likewise said about the apostle Paul that after the baptism of the Ephesians "when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prohesied" (Acts 19: 5-6).
Each of them made wonders and miracles.
It was said about the apostle Paul: "Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, wo that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:11).
Each of them raised up a dead.
The apostle Peter resuscitated from death "a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas". He "prayed. And turning to the body he said: Tabitha, arise". And she opened her eyes ..... Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up ........ and ...... presented her alive" (Acts 9: 36-41).
The apostle Paul resuscitated from death "a certain young man named Euthychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead." But Paul ressuscitated him. "And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted" (Acts 20: 7-12).
Each of them was a flame of energy, holy zeal, and work of predication.
Each of them preached and taught, and made efforts in the ministry.
Since the day of the Pentecost, Peter taught and preached, and testified to the resurrection of the Lord Christ, in the temple and outside the temple. He preached in Jerusalem, in Lydda, and in Joppa (Acts 9: 22,31). He moved from Joppa to Cesarea where he admonished and baptised Cornelius and those who were with him (Acts 10). He also preached the Jews of the Dispersion, and sent to them an epistle "To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Peter 1:1).
The apostle saint Paul "laboured more abundantly than they (the apostles) all" (1 Cor. 15:10). Therefore we shall select a special chapter for him.
Each of them was bold and courageous in his predication.
It is enough as regards the apostle Peter that he insisted upon his predication, and did not care about the threatening by the Jews, but said his famous expression: "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
He rather rebuked the Jews saying: "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life" (Acts 3: 13-15).
The apostle saint Paul was very courageous before the governors.
It is that the governor Felix was terrified before him, who was a captive, "as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come" (Acts 24:25). And when he stood before the king Agrippa during his trial, he said to him: "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe". Then Agrippa said to Paul: "You almost persuade me to become a Christian". And Paul said: "I would to God that not only youm but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains" (Acts 26: 27-29).
Because of the courage of saint Paul, [as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying: "Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman"] And when the commander heard this, he was "afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him". "Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him" (Acts 22: 25-29).
Because of the courage of saint Paul, when the governor Festus wanted to deliver him to the Jews to kill him, he said: "I stand at Caesar's judgement seat, where I ought to be judged ....... For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar. Then Festus ...... answered: "You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!" (Acts 25: 10-12).
Each of the two saints Peter and Paul was firm in his punishment of the sinners.
We touch this in the punishment by saint Peter of Ananias and Sapphira when they "kept back part of the proceeds" of their sold possession and lied to the Holy Spirit; then Peter said to Ananias: "You have not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:4). Then Ananias "fell down and breathed his last". And when his wife Sapphira repeated the same lie, saint Peter said to her: ["How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out". Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last] (Acts 5:9).
This firmness was necessary, in order for the Church not to begin with negligence and indifference. Therefore it was said afterwards: "So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things" (Acts 5:11).
This punishment confirms the amount of power which God granted to that saint apostle.
Another example is the position of saint Peter as regards Simeon the sorcerer.
This one was astonished that "through the laying of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money" to obtain the same gift!
"But Peter said to him (with firmness and authority): "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! ........ Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity" (Acts 8: 18-22).
The apostle Paul also acted with every firmness with the sinner of Corinth.
That one who had fallen into the sin of adultery with his father's wife. When the apostle Paul heard about this, he sent to them saying: "I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit,have already judged .... deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus". And he reprimanded the people and said to them: "put away from yourselves the evil person" (1 Cor. 5: 3-5, 13). This firmness had its effect for the repentance of that sinner and for the holy zeal of the people.
Another example of the firmness of saint Paul, is his position as regards Elymas the sorcerer.
("For so his name is translated")
The apostle "Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him", rebuked him and said: "now indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand" (Acts 13: 6-11).
This event indicates also the authority which God granted to that saint apostle. And it happened as he said.
In spite of all this, the two saint apostles were humble.
At the beginning of the Lord's call of Peter, in the miracle of the catching of fish, we read that after the miracle that "he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (Luke 5:8).
The tradition informs us that during his martyrdom and crucifixion, he asked to be crucified head down because of his feeling of his sins, and not to be crucified as the Lord ........
The apostle Paul, in spite of all his fights in preaching, in spite of his numerous miracles, we see him write to this disciple Timotheus saying: "although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim. 1:13). And he says in his first epistle to the Corinthians about the appearances of the Lord: "Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor. 15: 8-9).
The examples and proofs of the humility of these two great apostles are very numerous, and it is not the appropriate time for them, in this summary pamphlet......
Each of them was exposed to many persecutions.
Saint Peter was persecuted together with the rest of the apostles at the beginning of Christianity. "the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them" (Acts 4:1). They arrested them, then they let them go. They conferred among themselves to kill them; were it not for the intervention of the Law teacher Gamaliel ..... (Acts 5: 32-40).
They scourged them and "commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41).
Saint Peter suffered scourging for Christ, and likewise also he was confined to jail.
Herod arrested him to please the Jews, and "he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover" (Acts 12: 3-4).
But the angel of the Lord delivered Peter that night, and brought him out of prison.....
As for Paul, how numerous are the persecutions which happened to him and to his participants in the ministry!?
He said about this: "But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in sleeplessness, in fastings ........ (2 Cor. 6: 4-5).
"We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal body. For we who live are always delivered to death" (2Cor. 4: 8-11).
He has explained in (2 Cor. 11) a summary of his sufferings. He said:
"in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in peril of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness".
Each of the saints Peter and Paul obtained the crown of martyrdom.
Each of them ended his life as a martyr in the year 67 AD at the hands of the ceasar Neron.
The apostle saint Peter was crucified head down.
The apostle saint Paul was beheaded with the sword.
The apostle saint Peter
He has three names: Simon the son of Jonah, Cephas, and Peter.
He and his brother Andrew were fishermen. His brother knew Christ before him.
Simon began his acquaintance with Christ by way of his brother Andrew.
It was mentioned in the gospel of John about Andrew:
"He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him: "We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said: "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas [which is translated, (Peter,) A Stone] (John 1: 40-42). We note that the three names came in a single verse.
Simon Peter became the first name among the twelve (Matt. 10:2).
Rather he became one of three who were very near to the Lord Christ.
They are Peter, James, and John, whom He took to the mount of the Transfiguration, and "His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light" (Matt. 17: 1,2); and they saw with Him Moses and Elijah talking to Him......
The Lord took these three with Him in the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus from death. The gospel of Mark says about that: "And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James" (Mark 5:37).
These three are also those whom He took with Him to the garden of Gethsemany, in His agony before the crucifixion. The gospel of Matthew says about that: "And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee...." (Matt. 26:37).
Hence, Peter, James and John had a certain familiarity by Christ.
Therefore the apostle Paul considers Peter to be one of the three pillars of the church in the days of the apostles.........
He says: "and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision" (Gal. 2:9).
The apostle saint Peter loved the Lord Christ very much.
He loved His words and His instruction. Accordingly when some disciples returned back; and the Lord [said to the twelve: "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6: 66-68).
His love for Him was manifested in his words on Maundy-Thursday night.
When the Lord said to His disciples: "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night", Peter with his well-known implusiveness answered and said to Him: "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble ....... Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You" (Matt. 26: 31-35). "I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death" (Luke 22:33).
Verily, he denied Him three times, but out of weakness, and not out of lack of love.
A proof of this is that when the rooster crew, "he went out and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26:75). Another proof is that he answered the Lord after the resurrection: "You know that I love you" (John 21: 17). The Lord accepted his repentance, and established him in his apostleship and said to him: "Feed My lambs", "Tend My sheep" (John 21: 15,16).
The apostle Peter manifested great courage and boldness after the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The first chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles are nearly centered about the two apostles Peter and John; and narrate to us what they did in the building of the first Church, before the appearance of the apostle Paul.
We do not forget the strength of the apostle Peter in exhortation:
The effect of his sermon on the day of the Pentecost, which drew to faith nearly three thousand men who "were cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37), and were baptised; and likewise his sermon after the healing of the lame (Acts 3); and his courageous standing before all the chiefs and the priests of the Jews; and his unrestricted manifestation of his faith.
It is evident that he could recall from memory the psalms and the verses of the Bible.
He mentioned them in his profound interpretations. For example: what he said about Judas (Acts 1: 16-20); what he said on the day of the Pentecost; his quotation of what came in the book of the prophet Joel (Acts 2: 16-21); other quotations from the book of the Psalms (Acts :24-30) ..... all this in consequent verses. Add to this what he said on the day of the healing of the lame, and his quotation of the sayings of the prophets (Acts 3: 21-25).
The apostle Peter is astonishing in his recalling from memory of the verses of the Bible, and their use.
Examples of this are numerous. That is not the time to count them.
We find the same situation in his two epistles which he wrote. It is the style of a man who filled with the spirit of the Bible, and with the soundness of the explanation of the words. He said: "knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
It was he who said: "I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets...." (2 Peter 3: 1-2).
The apostle saint Paul
He is one of the giant capacities of ministry
As soon as he entered into faith, the Lord employed him for the building of the kingdom, and he worked by him action.
The book of the Acts of the Apostles begins by mentioning the work of the twelve, and specially Peter and John.
After mentioning Paul, nearly the rest of the book is occupied bith this great apostle, specially after the council of Jerusalem.
He "laboured more abundantly than they all" (1 Cor. 15:10), he enjoyed gifs and revelations, and ascended to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12: 2-7).
He suffered from every body for the predication (2 Cor. 11).
He preached in all the great apostolic churches.
He served much in Jerusalem and in Antioch. He founded the churches of Greece, as well as the church of Rome, where he stayed for two years preaching "the kingdom of God ......... with all confidence, no one forbidding him" (Acts 28: 30-31).
He was tired on the land and at sea, preaching in three voyages, in Asia, Europe, till he arrived west to Spain where he founded its church.
He served in many islands: in Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sicilia, and he founded their churches.
In Asia, he preached in Jerusalem, Tyr, Cesarea, Antioch, Ephesus, Meletis, and some cities in Minor Asia....
In Europe, he preached in Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonique, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Troas, Rome and many cities in Italy.
He spoke in the Temple and the synagogues, and in the houses, and in the Areopagus, and the temples and possibly in every place.
He was exposed to many false accusations from the Jews; he stood before governors, and kings, as Felix, Festus, Agrippa, Ceasar, and the council of the Sanhedrim.
He was imprisonned and captive many times: in Philippi, Cesarea, and twice in Rome ......
He wrote much.
He wrote fourteen epistles. Two of the evangelists are his disciples, they are Mark and Luke. Also among his disciples there are Aristarchus, Timotheus, Titus, and others.
He was surnamed the apostle of the Gentiles:
The Lord said to him: "I will send you far from here to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21), "as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome" (Acts 23:11).
He obtained the crown of martyrdom by being beheaded at the hands of Neron in the year 67 AD. And he obtained the crown of virginity, and the crown of apostleship, and the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8).
May the blessing of his prayers be with us all.
THE APOSTLE PAUL'S DISCIPLES
1. Saint Timotheus:
to whom the apostle Paul wrote two epistles.
The apostle Paul ordinated him bishop of Ephesus. He reminded him with the laying of his hands upon him. He was the assistant of saint Paul in many of his voyages. He went to Philippi (Philippi 2: 19-20); to Corinth (2 Cor. 1:1), to Macedonia (Acts 19:22), and likewise he went to Rome (Heb. 13:23).
He was very active in ministry in spite of the sickness of his stomach and his "frequent infirmities" (1Tim. 5:23).
He began his service from his youth, so that saint Paul said to him: "Let no one despise your youth" (1 Tim. 4:12). He was helped by his knowledge since his childhood of holy books, his origin in a saint family and specially his mother and his grandmother (Lois and Eunice).
2. Titus:
He is one of the disciples of the apostle Paul to whom he wrote an epistle. He ordinated him bishop of Crete .... He called him his son (Titus 1:4), as he called also Timotheus his son (1 Tim.1:18). He accompanied the apostle in some of his journeys, and went with him to Nicopolis and Delmatia. The saint sent him to Corinth, and left him to arrange the matter of pastorship, and to ordinate priests, in Crete.
3. Tychicus:
One of the disciples of the apostle Paul. He sent him to Ephesus (Eph. 6:21), and to Colosse (Co;. 4:7). He was among the most united sons to him. He mentioned in some of his epistles. (Titus 3:12), (2 Tim. 4:12).
The rest of Paul's disciples:
Those who loved saint Paul, and whom he mentioned in his epistles, are many, as for example it was mentioned in (Rom. 16).....
Among his well-known disciples: Aristarchus whose name he once mentioned before the evangelist Luke (Philemon 23), and he described him as his fellow labourer.
Among the disciples of Paul also, Epaphras (Philemon 22), and also the apostle Mark, the evangelist Luke, and others......
7
THE TWO SAINTS PETER & PAUL
(ON THE FEAST'S DAY OF THE APOSTLES
WHICH IS THEIR FEAST)
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
First print: Cairo, July 1997
Name of the book: The two saints Peter & Paul
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: July 1997
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Deposition number at "The Library": 8476/97
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 43 - X
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
The feast of the the apostles (5 Abib) is the feast of the martyrdom of S. Peter & S. Paul.
I shall talk to you about them, not as regards History, but as a spiritual life which can be a lesson.
What were the points of resemblance, and the points of difference in their lives? and how God had chosen these two kinds for the building up of His kingdom?
Both are two apostles, and martyrs. Each of them has his own style. But both the two styles were for the glory of God.
Pope Shenouda III
PREFACE
On the occasion of the feast of the apostles, I had wished to talk to you about the apostles in a general manner. But I have found that this is greater than to be contained in a summary pamphlet like this one.
So I preferred to write for you only about these two great apostles: S. Peter & S. Peter; especially that the feast of the apostles (5 Abib) is the feast of the martyrdom of S. Peter & S. Paul.
As for the talk about our fathers the apostles in a general manner, there will be a special pamphlet for that, later on, if the Lord permits and we live.
And believe me, a single pamphlet is not enough even for our limitation only to these two apostles, but we shall talk very briefly.
We do not write History in this pamphlet, because History would need volumes, and researches, and maps....
But I shall write to you here about the spiritual lessons and not about History.
That is what we can learn, as much as it is possible, from the lives of the apostles. If we turn to History, it will be in a secondary manner.
On the occasion of the feast of the apostles
Pope Shenouda III
The Church celebrates the memory of the martyrdom of these two saints on the 5th of Abib, which is the 12th of July.This feast is called in our Church by the name of "the feast of the apostles". Its date is unchanged in every year.
The Church venerates these two apostles very profoundly; and praises them and honors them exceedingly; especially in the prayer of "the partition" or "the division" which pertains to the fast of the apostles and to the feast of the apostles, which we pray during the holy mass.
Although there are not many churches which are called by their two names together, there is a church which is called by their two names in the region of Amba Roueiss in Cairo, and another church which is called by their two names in Los Angeles, California, USA.
These two saints represent two distinguished kinds as regards the personality, the mission, and the style. Each one of them has distinct characteristics.
THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE
Peter was among the first whom the Lord had chosen to work with Him (Matt. 10).
And Paul was not among the twelve, and not even among the seventy apostles, but the Lord chose him lastly, after the resurrection and years after the choice of Matthias......
He did not follow Christ during His predication on earth. He rather said about that: "Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor. 15: 8-9).
And although he was the last in his call, yet he "laboured more abundantly than they all" (1 Cor. 15:10). That shows that it is not a matter of precedence, but according to the amount of weariness from exertion for God.
A person may not be the most ancient among the workers in ministry, and nevertheless he may be the strongest of all the workers.
John the Baptist was not the first prophet in the Old Testament, but he was the last of them in their chronological order. Nevertheless it was said that "among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:11).
St. Augustin said to the Lord: "I have been very much late to love You". And with his lateness, he was more profound than millions who had preceded him.
Peter was born in Bethsaide, and his family lived in Capernaum (Kafr Nahum).
Paul was born in Tarsus of Cilicia. He went to Jerusalem in the early years of his youth to complete his religious instruction, in order to study the Law at the hands of one of the great teachers" (Acts 22:3).
The apostle Peter was a married man. It was mentioned in the Gospel that Christ healed his step-mother from fever (Matt. 8: 14-15). In his journeys for the predication, he wandered accompanied by his wife as a sister (1 Cor. 9:5).
But the apostle Paul was a virgin. (1 Cor. 7:7).
He called for the preference of virginity. "But each one has his own gift from God", "as the Lord has called each one...... Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called" (1 Cor. 7: 7,17,20).
That proves that the Lord calls everybody to His service, whether they are married like Peter, or virgins like Paul.
Peter began his life with the Lord Christ with love, confidence, and faith. But on the contrary: Paul began by enemity, as a persecutor of the Church and of everyone who followed Christ, so that the Lord, when He met him on the road to Damascus, began his conversation with him by reprimanding him saying: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4).
Saint Peter was a simple man, a fisherman (Matt. 4:18). He was ignorant and was not instructed into culture or science. He is one of whom "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise" (1 Cor. 27). It was said of him, of him and saint John, "that they were uneducated and untrained men" (Acts 4:13).
But saint Paul was one of the learned of his age, who was educated at the University of Tarsus, and brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He was well-known for his culture and for reading many books. (Acts 26:24).
That shows us that the Lord equally employs everybody for His kingdom, the learned and the simple. The important thing for them is to be useful ustensils for the work of His grace......
There was also a distinction in the mission of each of the two saints Peter and Paul.
The apostle Peter began his ministry while he was old-aged. Perhaps he was the oldest of all the apostles. Therefore they venerated his old age. As regards age, he said about saint Mark: "Mark my son " (1 Peter 5:13).
But saint Paul was smaller than saint Peter in age.
Also among the points of difference: the apostle Paul formed for himself disciples in a greater number than Peter did.
Among his disciples were Timothy and Titus to whom he sent epistles.
Also among his disciples, were Luke, Aristarchus, Tichycus, Carpus, the deaconess Phebe, Achilla and Priscilla......and others.
Mark followed both of them: first he followed Peter, then he remained with Paul to the end of his life (2 Tim. 4:11).
It was said about saint Peter that he was "the apostle of circumcision"
He was confided in "the gospel of circumcision", that is the predication to the Jews; while Paul was confided in "the Gospel of uncircoumsision", that is the predication to the Gentiles.
Such is what the apostle saint Paul said: "the gospel of the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter, for He who worked effectivey in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles" (Gal. 2: 7-8).
The Lord said to Paul: "Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). And He also said to him: "for as you testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome" (Rom.23:11).
Paul wrote an epistle to the Romans, and some epistles to the churches of the Gentiles.
Peter wrote to the Jews "the pilgrims of the Dispersion" (1 Peter 1:1).
Saint Paul wrote 14 epistles which consisted of 100 chapters.
Saint Peter wrote only two epistles which consisted of 8 chapters.
Saint Peter was simple in his writings.
As for saint Paul, saint Peter said about his epistles "in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).
Saint Paul talked about theological questions like the justification, the renovation, Law and grace, the baptism, the priesthood, choice and rejection, living as Jews ...... matters which saint Peter did not approach.
Saint Peter was impulsive.
That was probably because of his great zeal, or his jealousy. The Lord praised him when he testified of Him that He is the Son of the living God (Matt. 16: 15:19).
But many times the Lord reprimanded him for his impulsiveness.
Such as when He reprimanded him afterwards, when the Lord was talking about his future sufferings and His killing by the Jews. Then Peter said impetuously: "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to you! Then the Lord rebuked him saying: "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men"(Matt. 16: 21:23).
Peter also was implusive during the Lord's washing of His apostles' feet. He refused and "said to Him: You shall never wash my feet!" But when "Jesus answered him: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Simon Peter said to Him: "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head"...... (John 13: 8-10).
Another time when the Lord Christ was arrested, Peter "having a sword", impulsively "drew it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. So, Jesus said to Peter: "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" (John 18: 10-11). And He also said to him: "for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matt. 26: 51,52).
Thus we see that the Lord has chosen him in spite of his impulsiveness, then He has transformed this impulsiveness into good since the day of the Pentecost.
Then we see Peter beginning to speak in that day, and he explained what was happening to the people (Acts 2), and he called them to faith. He also began to speak on the day of the healing of the lame, and rebuked the Jews because they had preferred a murderer to the Lord Christ, before Pilate (Acts 3:12-26).
He came forward in many occasions, as when he said: "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Act 5:29).
Thus the Lord employed the impulsiveness ot Peter for the good.
As for saint Paul, he was also enthusiastic, but without impulsiveness.....
Because of the difference in their style of work, saint Paul once reprimanded saint Peter himself:
He explained this in the second chapter of his epistle to the Galatians saying: "Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before cetain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all: "If you being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?" (Gal. 2: 11-14).
Nevertheless the two saints participated together and resembled each other in substantial matters like zeal and martyrdom.
POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE
Both were Jews.
The apostle Paul mentioned that he was a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5).
The Bible did not mention from which tribe was the apostle Peter.
Both were called by the Lord.
Peter was "casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them: [Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed Him" (Matt. 4: 18-20).
The Lord called Paul as "he journeyed to Damascus, and suddently a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground" (Acts 9: 1--4), and the Lord called him, sending him first to Ananias of Damascus.
And as the Lord Jesus-Christ called him, also the Holy Spirit called him, and said: "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2).
Likewise also God the Father called him. The apostle saint Paul
said about that: "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me" (Gal. 1: 15-17).
Thus we see that the apostle saint Paul was called by the three Persons, each separately.
Although both the saint apostles Peter and Paul were likewise called by God, yet the manner of the call was different; and also the number of the calls.
The Lord changed the name of each of them:
Peter was called Simeon, son of Jonah (John 21:15). The Lord called him by the name of Peter. (Matt. 16: 17-18).
The name of Saul was changed into Paul. At the beginning of his call, the Lord called him by the name of Saul (Acts 9:4). During his predication, He called him by the name of Paul (Acts 23:11).
The Holy Spirit came upon each of them; and each of them spoke with tongues.
It is evident that the apostle Peter spoke languages on the day of Pentecost, for the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him. The apostle Paul said in his epistle to the Corinthians: "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all" (1 Cor. 14:18). And it was said in the story of Elymas the sorcerer: "Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said......" (Acts 13:9).
Each of them had the power to give the Holy Spirit.
It was said about Peter and John, that the apostles who were in Jerusalem, sent them to Samaria when it believed: "Then they laid hands on them, and the received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:17).
It was likewise said about the apostle Paul that after the baptism of the Ephesians "when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prohesied" (Acts 19: 5-6).
Each of them made wonders and miracles.
It was said about the apostle Paul: "Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, wo that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:11).
Each of them raised up a dead.
The apostle Peter resuscitated from death "a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas". He "prayed. And turning to the body he said: Tabitha, arise". And she opened her eyes ..... Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up ........ and ...... presented her alive" (Acts 9: 36-41).
The apostle Paul resuscitated from death "a certain young man named Euthychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead." But Paul ressuscitated him. "And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted" (Acts 20: 7-12).
Each of them was a flame of energy, holy zeal, and work of predication.
Each of them preached and taught, and made efforts in the ministry.
Since the day of the Pentecost, Peter taught and preached, and testified to the resurrection of the Lord Christ, in the temple and outside the temple. He preached in Jerusalem, in Lydda, and in Joppa (Acts 9: 22,31). He moved from Joppa to Cesarea where he admonished and baptised Cornelius and those who were with him (Acts 10). He also preached the Jews of the Dispersion, and sent to them an epistle "To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Peter 1:1).
The apostle saint Paul "laboured more abundantly than they (the apostles) all" (1 Cor. 15:10). Therefore we shall select a special chapter for him.
Each of them was bold and courageous in his predication.
It is enough as regards the apostle Peter that he insisted upon his predication, and did not care about the threatening by the Jews, but said his famous expression: "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
He rather rebuked the Jews saying: "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life" (Acts 3: 13-15).
The apostle saint Paul was very courageous before the governors.
It is that the governor Felix was terrified before him, who was a captive, "as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come" (Acts 24:25). And when he stood before the king Agrippa during his trial, he said to him: "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe". Then Agrippa said to Paul: "You almost persuade me to become a Christian". And Paul said: "I would to God that not only youm but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains" (Acts 26: 27-29).
Because of the courage of saint Paul, [as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying: "Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman"] And when the commander heard this, he was "afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him". "Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him" (Acts 22: 25-29).
Because of the courage of saint Paul, when the governor Festus wanted to deliver him to the Jews to kill him, he said: "I stand at Caesar's judgement seat, where I ought to be judged ....... For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar. Then Festus ...... answered: "You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!" (Acts 25: 10-12).
Each of the two saints Peter and Paul was firm in his punishment of the sinners.
We touch this in the punishment by saint Peter of Ananias and Sapphira when they "kept back part of the proceeds" of their sold possession and lied to the Holy Spirit; then Peter said to Ananias: "You have not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:4). Then Ananias "fell down and breathed his last". And when his wife Sapphira repeated the same lie, saint Peter said to her: ["How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out". Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last] (Acts 5:9).
This firmness was necessary, in order for the Church not to begin with negligence and indifference. Therefore it was said afterwards: "So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things" (Acts 5:11).
This punishment confirms the amount of power which God granted to that saint apostle.
Another example is the position of saint Peter as regards Simeon the sorcerer.
This one was astonished that "through the laying of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money" to obtain the same gift!
"But Peter said to him (with firmness and authority): "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! ........ Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity" (Acts 8: 18-22).
The apostle Paul also acted with every firmness with the sinner of Corinth.
That one who had fallen into the sin of adultery with his father's wife. When the apostle Paul heard about this, he sent to them saying: "I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit,have already judged .... deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus". And he reprimanded the people and said to them: "put away from yourselves the evil person" (1 Cor. 5: 3-5, 13). This firmness had its effect for the repentance of that sinner and for the holy zeal of the people.
Another example of the firmness of saint Paul, is his position as regards Elymas the sorcerer.
("For so his name is translated")
The apostle "Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him", rebuked him and said: "now indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand" (Acts 13: 6-11).
This event indicates also the authority which God granted to that saint apostle. And it happened as he said.
In spite of all this, the two saint apostles were humble.
At the beginning of the Lord's call of Peter, in the miracle of the catching of fish, we read that after the miracle that "he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (Luke 5:8).
The tradition informs us that during his martyrdom and crucifixion, he asked to be crucified head down because of his feeling of his sins, and not to be crucified as the Lord ........
The apostle Paul, in spite of all his fights in preaching, in spite of his numerous miracles, we see him write to this disciple Timotheus saying: "although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim. 1:13). And he says in his first epistle to the Corinthians about the appearances of the Lord: "Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor. 15: 8-9).
The examples and proofs of the humility of these two great apostles are very numerous, and it is not the appropriate time for them, in this summary pamphlet......
Each of them was exposed to many persecutions.
Saint Peter was persecuted together with the rest of the apostles at the beginning of Christianity. "the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them" (Acts 4:1). They arrested them, then they let them go. They conferred among themselves to kill them; were it not for the intervention of the Law teacher Gamaliel ..... (Acts 5: 32-40).
They scourged them and "commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41).
Saint Peter suffered scourging for Christ, and likewise also he was confined to jail.
Herod arrested him to please the Jews, and "he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover" (Acts 12: 3-4).
But the angel of the Lord delivered Peter that night, and brought him out of prison.....
As for Paul, how numerous are the persecutions which happened to him and to his participants in the ministry!?
He said about this: "But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in sleeplessness, in fastings ........ (2 Cor. 6: 4-5).
"We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal body. For we who live are always delivered to death" (2Cor. 4: 8-11).
He has explained in (2 Cor. 11) a summary of his sufferings. He said:
"in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in peril of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness".
Each of the saints Peter and Paul obtained the crown of martyrdom.
Each of them ended his life as a martyr in the year 67 AD at the hands of the ceasar Neron.
The apostle saint Peter was crucified head down.
The apostle saint Paul was beheaded with the sword.
The apostle saint Peter
He has three names: Simon the son of Jonah, Cephas, and Peter.
He and his brother Andrew were fishermen. His brother knew Christ before him.
Simon began his acquaintance with Christ by way of his brother Andrew.
It was mentioned in the gospel of John about Andrew:
"He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him: "We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said: "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas [which is translated, (Peter,) A Stone] (John 1: 40-42). We note that the three names came in a single verse.
Simon Peter became the first name among the twelve (Matt. 10:2).
Rather he became one of three who were very near to the Lord Christ.
They are Peter, James, and John, whom He took to the mount of the Transfiguration, and "His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light" (Matt. 17: 1,2); and they saw with Him Moses and Elijah talking to Him......
The Lord took these three with Him in the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus from death. The gospel of Mark says about that: "And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James" (Mark 5:37).
These three are also those whom He took with Him to the garden of Gethsemany, in His agony before the crucifixion. The gospel of Matthew says about that: "And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee...." (Matt. 26:37).
Hence, Peter, James and John had a certain familiarity by Christ.
Therefore the apostle Paul considers Peter to be one of the three pillars of the church in the days of the apostles.........
He says: "and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision" (Gal. 2:9).
The apostle saint Peter loved the Lord Christ very much.
He loved His words and His instruction. Accordingly when some disciples returned back; and the Lord [said to the twelve: "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6: 66-68).
His love for Him was manifested in his words on Maundy-Thursday night.
When the Lord said to His disciples: "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night", Peter with his well-known implusiveness answered and said to Him: "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble ....... Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You" (Matt. 26: 31-35). "I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death" (Luke 22:33).
Verily, he denied Him three times, but out of weakness, and not out of lack of love.
A proof of this is that when the rooster crew, "he went out and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26:75). Another proof is that he answered the Lord after the resurrection: "You know that I love you" (John 21: 17). The Lord accepted his repentance, and established him in his apostleship and said to him: "Feed My lambs", "Tend My sheep" (John 21: 15,16).
The apostle Peter manifested great courage and boldness after the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The first chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles are nearly centered about the two apostles Peter and John; and narrate to us what they did in the building of the first Church, before the appearance of the apostle Paul.
We do not forget the strength of the apostle Peter in exhortation:
The effect of his sermon on the day of the Pentecost, which drew to faith nearly three thousand men who "were cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37), and were baptised; and likewise his sermon after the healing of the lame (Acts 3); and his courageous standing before all the chiefs and the priests of the Jews; and his unrestricted manifestation of his faith.
It is evident that he could recall from memory the psalms and the verses of the Bible.
He mentioned them in his profound interpretations. For example: what he said about Judas (Acts 1: 16-20); what he said on the day of the Pentecost; his quotation of what came in the book of the prophet Joel (Acts 2: 16-21); other quotations from the book of the Psalms (Acts :24-30) ..... all this in consequent verses. Add to this what he said on the day of the healing of the lame, and his quotation of the sayings of the prophets (Acts 3: 21-25).
The apostle Peter is astonishing in his recalling from memory of the verses of the Bible, and their use.
Examples of this are numerous. That is not the time to count them.
We find the same situation in his two epistles which he wrote. It is the style of a man who filled with the spirit of the Bible, and with the soundness of the explanation of the words. He said: "knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
It was he who said: "I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets...." (2 Peter 3: 1-2).
The apostle saint Paul
He is one of the giant capacities of ministry
As soon as he entered into faith, the Lord employed him for the building of the kingdom, and he worked by him action.
The book of the Acts of the Apostles begins by mentioning the work of the twelve, and specially Peter and John.
After mentioning Paul, nearly the rest of the book is occupied bith this great apostle, specially after the council of Jerusalem.
He "laboured more abundantly than they all" (1 Cor. 15:10), he enjoyed gifs and revelations, and ascended to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12: 2-7).
He suffered from every body for the predication (2 Cor. 11).
He preached in all the great apostolic churches.
He served much in Jerusalem and in Antioch. He founded the churches of Greece, as well as the church of Rome, where he stayed for two years preaching "the kingdom of God ......... with all confidence, no one forbidding him" (Acts 28: 30-31).
He was tired on the land and at sea, preaching in three voyages, in Asia, Europe, till he arrived west to Spain where he founded its church.
He served in many islands: in Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sicilia, and he founded their churches.
In Asia, he preached in Jerusalem, Tyr, Cesarea, Antioch, Ephesus, Meletis, and some cities in Minor Asia....
In Europe, he preached in Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonique, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Troas, Rome and many cities in Italy.
He spoke in the Temple and the synagogues, and in the houses, and in the Areopagus, and the temples and possibly in every place.
He was exposed to many false accusations from the Jews; he stood before governors, and kings, as Felix, Festus, Agrippa, Ceasar, and the council of the Sanhedrim.
He was imprisonned and captive many times: in Philippi, Cesarea, and twice in Rome ......
He wrote much.
He wrote fourteen epistles. Two of the evangelists are his disciples, they are Mark and Luke. Also among his disciples there are Aristarchus, Timotheus, Titus, and others.
He was surnamed the apostle of the Gentiles:
The Lord said to him: "I will send you far from here to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21), "as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome" (Acts 23:11).
He obtained the crown of martyrdom by being beheaded at the hands of Neron in the year 67 AD. And he obtained the crown of virginity, and the crown of apostleship, and the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8).
May the blessing of his prayers be with us all.
THE APOSTLE PAUL'S DISCIPLES
1. Saint Timotheus:
to whom the apostle Paul wrote two epistles.
The apostle Paul ordinated him bishop of Ephesus. He reminded him with the laying of his hands upon him. He was the assistant of saint Paul in many of his voyages. He went to Philippi (Philippi 2: 19-20); to Corinth (2 Cor. 1:1), to Macedonia (Acts 19:22), and likewise he went to Rome (Heb. 13:23).
He was very active in ministry in spite of the sickness of his stomach and his "frequent infirmities" (1Tim. 5:23).
He began his service from his youth, so that saint Paul said to him: "Let no one despise your youth" (1 Tim. 4:12). He was helped by his knowledge since his childhood of holy books, his origin in a saint family and specially his mother and his grandmother (Lois and Eunice).
2. Titus:
He is one of the disciples of the apostle Paul to whom he wrote an epistle. He ordinated him bishop of Crete .... He called him his son (Titus 1:4), as he called also Timotheus his son (1 Tim.1:18). He accompanied the apostle in some of his journeys, and went with him to Nicopolis and Delmatia. The saint sent him to Corinth, and left him to arrange the matter of pastorship, and to ordinate priests, in Crete.
3. Tychicus:
One of the disciples of the apostle Paul. He sent him to Ephesus (Eph. 6:21), and to Colosse (Co;. 4:7). He was among the most united sons to him. He mentioned in some of his epistles. (Titus 3:12), (2 Tim. 4:12).
The rest of Paul's disciples:
Those who loved saint Paul, and whom he mentioned in his epistles, are many, as for example it was mentioned in (Rom. 16).....
Among his well-known disciples: Aristarchus whose name he once mentioned before the evangelist Luke (Philemon 23), and he described him as his fellow labourer.
Among the disciples of Paul also, Epaphras (Philemon 22), and also the apostle Mark, the evangelist Luke, and others......
THE EPIPHANY
Pope Shenouda III series
4
The Epiphany
&
St. John The Baptist
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Second print, Cairo, September 1999
Name of the book: The Epiphany & St. John the Baptist
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: July 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Icon design: Tassony Sawsan
Deposition number at "The Library": 2504/97
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 37 - 5
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
MEDITATIONS UPON THE GLORIOUS
FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
The month of January brings to us several feasts: the beginning of the new year, the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany.
We thank God who gave us the blessing and the efficiency of all these feasts, in our lives.
While we celebrate the glorious feast of the Ephiphany, we are glad to stop sometime for meditation:
The feast of Epiphany is the feast of Baptism ......
This feast is also called the feast of the divine manifestation (the Theophania).
Because the Holy Trinity appeared in it: The Son is baptised, The Father says from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", and The Holy Spirit appears "like of a dove" (Matt. 3: 16-17). Hence the baptism of the Lord Christ shows the creed of the Holy Trinity.
Thus the baptism is always in the Name of the Holy Trinity,
according to the word of the Lord to His disciples before His Ascension: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). He did not say in the names, because the three are one, as it was mentioned in (1 John 5:7): "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one".
It is well that the Church has called this feast: "Eed El Ghetass", or the feast of the Immersion, (in Arabic: Eed means feast, and "El Ghetass" means immersion).
Because in it, the Church reminds the people that the Lord Christ was baptized by being immersed, as it was said that after being baptized, "When He has been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water" (Matt. 3:16). The Church also reminds the people that the faithful in the New Testament are being baptized by being immersed, (and not by being sprinkled with water, as it is done in some communities). The Ethiopian eunuch was baptized in this manner, at the beginning of the apostolic era, at the hands of Philip: "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away" (Acts 8:39).
Also because Baptism is a tincture, (Baptisma in Latin), and tinting is accomplished through immersion; and because Baptism is a burial with Christ (Col. 2:12), and burial is accomplished through placing inside the tomb (immersion), and cannot be represented by sprinkling with water ......
Likewise in all the ancient vestiges, we see that baptism was accomplished inside a recipient that was called the baptistery.
That proves that baptizing was accomplished through immersion, and not by sprinkling water.
We remember, during this feast, many spiritual and doctrinal meanings, whether as regards the baptism of the Lord Christ at the hands of John the Baptist, or as regards the importance of Baptism in the Church.......
We remember also that the Lord came to the baptism of John, while He was not in need of it.
But that was in order "to fulfill all righteousness", so that He would be without blame before men, even while He is not in need. That also establishes before us the principle of obedience and the principle of loyalty, without asking what profit it is to us?
He entered the baptism of John also in order to be our representative, or to take our place, just as He fasted instead of us, and just as He was crucified instead of us.
Many of His actions were for the others and not for Himself. He took our place to present to God the Father an image of the perfect man, who satisfies the Father by His life, as well He satisfies Him by His redemption of the human kind.
In His baptism, we remember his humility .....
We remember His love and His fidelity, and His tenderness in His conversation with John, when He says: "Permit it to be so now".
The baptism of Christ also reminds us of our baptism , and of the care of the Church for Baptism.
Baptism is the first sacrament of the Church, and is the door through which we enter to the other sacraments.
We say vulgarily: "we have christianised so and so", that is: we have batptised him; because he has become a christian through baptism. ..... That is an expression which is sound in its doctrinal meaning, and which reminds us of the word of Christ: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
Therefore the day of baptism is a feast as regards the child and his family.
In that day, the Church gives him three sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist also; and makes him ready to participate in the life of the Church. He becomes a member in it, and takes the first ecclesiastical certificate in his life.
The Church assigns a sponsor to the child, who will care for him spiritually, and very often it is the mother who is the sponsor to her child.
The mother is engaged before God and the Church to take care of her child in the fear of God, and to be his first teacher, who instructs him, and who gives him the practical training for all religious matters.
THE LORD'S HUMILITY
IN BAPTISM
The baptism of John was the baptism of repentance. The Lord Christ was not in need of repentance. Why then was He baptized?
He was baptized instead of the human kind in entering the baptism of repentance....
Likewise He fasted instead of us, while He was not in need of fasting, just as He was dead instead of us, while He was not deserving death......
All this was in order to offer to the Father a perfect image of the human kind, and to pay the price of our sins. Likewise He presented Himself to baptism, in order "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 4:15), so that nobody convicts Him of sin .... in order to be submissive to the Law, before everybody, although He is above the Law.....
Thus He walked with the crowds, as one of them, presenting Himself to the baptism of repentance.
What is this humility, which the Lord offers to us?! When John apologised saying: "I need to be baptized by You", the Lord replied: "Permit it to be so now"....
In the same manner He permitted to His mother who is exemplar in her purity, who gave birth to Him from the Holy Spirit without stain, to present herself "when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed ...... to present Him to the Lord" (Luke 22:2), while she absolutely was not in need of days of purification.
The Lord Christ was not a sinner to present Himself to the baptism of repentance, but He was a bearer of sins. He has borne all the sins of the world.
"Now this is the testimony of John" who baptized Him" (John 1:19....).
Christ has borne the sins of the world, and descended with them to the baptism; likewise He has borne these sins upon the Cross, and erased them with His blood .... "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
The Lord Christ, although He was Righteous without sin, and defied the Jews later on saying to them: "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46) ...... yet He accomplished the rite of the baptism of repentance. He did not omit this spiritual act to which the repented crowds presented themselves. We have found Him walking like the rest of the people who were sinners, and advancing toward the baptism of repentance.
All of them were baptized confessing their sins. But He was baptized bearing the sins of all the people.
He did this, lest a fault would be caught, or a defect would be counted, against Him. And also in order "to fulfill all righteousness".
Also in order "to fulfill all righteousness", His mother the Holy Virgin Mary acted with the same humility.
It was mentioned in the story of her entry with Him to the temple: [Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord: "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: "A pair of turledoves or two young pigeons"]. (Luke 2: 22-24) .......
It is astonishing that this expression is said about the Holy Virgin: "when the days of her purification.....were completed"....!! The Holy Spirit had sanctified her womb during the holy pregnancy; and she conceived without the stain of the original sin; and was absolutely not at all in need of purification ..... but, in order "to fulfill all righteousness", she submitted to the commandment of the law, while she was not in need of that.
Verily there are matters which the human being is not compelled to do, but he does them in order not to scandalise others and in order to fulfill all righteousness.....
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He obtained the baptism at the hands of John.
The greatest High Priest, who grants priesthood, obtained the baptism from one of his priests, from one of his sons.... from a person who had confessed saying to Him: "I need to be baptized by You" (Matt. 3:14); and likewise had confessed saying: "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose".....
The priesthood of the Lord Christ is of Melchisedek, and the prieshood of John is of Aaron.
It is well known that the priesthood of Melchisedek is greater than the priesthood of Aaron, as our teacher the apostle saint Paul explained in (Hebrews 7). Likewise Melchisedek blessed our father Abraham in whose loins Aaron was (Hebrews 7). Nevertheless, with all humility, He who was "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4), presented Himself to obtain the baptism at the hands of one of the sons of Aaron!
In this, there is also some veneration from His part to the priesthood in His time.
Likewise, when He healed the leper, He said to him: "go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (Matt. 8:4).
Verily the Baptism's story is full of numerous examples of humility.
Also because of the Lord's humility, after all the glorious matters that appeared during His baptism, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of John ....... after all this "He went up on a mountain", in order to be tempted by Satan, and permitted Satan to tempt Him, in all audacity, or more accurately speaking, in all pride ...... and the Lord replied to him in all quietness, and defeated Satan with His humility ......
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He submitted to the Law in age as well as in baptism.
He waited till He reached the age of thirty according to the Law; while it was so easy for Him to begin many years before that, He who at the age of twelve, amazed the old teachers, "and all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers" (Luke 2:47) ...... But He waited till the age of thirty, and waited till He was baptized, and till He passed a period of solitude upon the mountain ......and then He began working ......
Christ humbled Himself from the beginning of His mission, in order to reply to the sin of the first Adam.
The first Adam responded to the incitement to become like God (Gen 3:5). That was undoubtedly a kind of pride. Then the Lord Christ the Son of God came, "taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7), walking in humility, in His birth in a manger representing poverty (Luke 2: 7), and also in His baptism at the hands of John who was in need to be baptized by Him .........
John the Baptist who baptized Him, was humble.......
although he was great, and the Lord Himself had attested of his greatness, and also the angel of the Lord, as we shall see.
THE BAPTIST'S GREATNESS
People certified of the greatness of many, but their testimony was
either fictitious and false, or ignorant, or complimentary ......
But God Himself and His angel attested of the greatness of John the Baptist.
The angel of the Lord announced his birth to Zacharias his father: "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord" (Luke 1:15).
This expression is very astonishing: to be "great in the sight of the Lord", before whom every human being stands, feeling his insignificance, as our father Abraham said: "Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord" (Gen. 18:27).
The expression "great in the sight of the Lord" does not mean His own feeling of his greatness, but it means that the Lord has given him greatness in order to stand before Him.
Thus greatness had been united with John before his birth, as the Lord testified.
Great works have been said about this great prophet: among them is that " he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He sill also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord", "and many will rejoice at his birth" (Luke 1: 16-17, 14) .......
In all this we ask the angel who announced his birth, about the secret of this wonderful greatness, and he replies saying that
"He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15).
Verily, this is the secret of John's greatness. We have heard in the Holy Bible that the Holy Spirit came upon many people: the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samsun (Judges 13:15), upon Saul (1 Sam. 10: 10-11), upon David (1 Sam. 16:13), and upon many prophets. But we absolutely did not hear about anybody that "He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb". We note here the expression "filled with the Holy Spirit", and not only the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him. This matter is special to John the Baptist, and to nobody before him. But perhaps we ask:
When was John the Baptist filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb?
That was in the word of the Lord: "And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). Then Elizabeth "spoke with a loud voice and said" to the Holy Virgin Mary: "..... For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" (Luke 1:44).
At this moment, the moment of the greeting of Mary the mother of God, John was filled with the Holy Spirit, while he was in the womb of his mother.
By the Spirit, the babe (in Elizabeth's womb) felt the divine babe in the Holy Virgin's womb, and rejoiced at Him and was as if he ran to meet Him!! It was said that he leaped for joy, as the Lord said to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). What is astonishing is that Elizabeth felt that her babe leaped for joy in her womb. It is possible for her to feel a movement (leaped).
But I remained perplexed for sometime before the expression "for joy".
I was perplexed before two things. The first is the joy of the babe. The feeling of a babe in his mother's womb! The second is the mother's feeling that the movement of her babe inside her, is a movement for joy!!
It is undoubtedly a gift from the Spirit, because it was said about Elizabeth in that moment that she "was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). This revelation can be a gift of the Spirit..... And here my perplexity ends......
It was not only the angel of the Lord who testified of the greatness of John, but more than that, the Lord of glory Himself testified when He said: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: "Behold, I send My messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way before You. Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:7-11).
The Scriptures also said about him that he is an angel:
"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face" (Mark 1:2). The Lord Christ Himself certified this surname (Matt. 11:10).
This prophecy was mentioned about him in the book of the prophet Malachi: "Behold, I send My messenger" (Mal/ 3:1).
John also was a priest among the sons of Aaron, a son of the prophet Zacharias.......
The greatest matter in the life of John is that he baptized the Lord Christ, glory be to Him.
The Lord Christ came to him to be baptized by him like other people. John accomplished the baptism of Christ out of obedience, and deserved to see the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove, and to hear the voice of the Father saying: "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). Thus he enjoyed the Holy Trinity both spiritually and sensationally.......
God rather guided John to Himself before the baptism:
Saint John the Baptist said about that: "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is ths Son of God" (John 1: 33-34).
The greatness of John the Baptist appears in that he accomplished his great mission in a short time, perhaps six months or a little longer.
These six months are the difference between his age and the corporal age of the Lord Christ, according to what the archangel Gabriel said in his annunciation to the Holy Virgin of the Holy conception: "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren" (Luke 1:36).
Each of both Christ and the Baptist began his life at the age of thirty. John served during these six months. And when Christ appeared, he began to hide. In this short period, that saint was able to lead many people to repentance, and to testify with a strong testimony to the Lord, and to prepare the way before Christ, and he presented to the whole world a practical example of the fact that:
the strength of service is not in its length, but in its deepness, and in the amount of its efficiency and the amount of its influence, and in its
fruit.
Is it not astonishing that the Lord does not let many of the useful servants, serve for a long time?! It is enough that they have presented an excellent sample of service and righteousness. They have presented an example to be followed. The Lord was satisfied with what they had presented, and He let them go in peace.
John presented an excellent example of serious service, and profound spiritualities, which were agreeable to God who let them go in peace.
The greatness of John is distinguished in that he lived in his perfection in spite of the darkness of his genereation.
It was a wicked age. Its spiritual leaders were the most wicked in that age, like the priests and the chiefs of the Jews. the scribes, the pharisees, and the saduccees. During that age, sometime before, there rose up some lying teachers like Theudas and Judas of Galilee about whom Gamaliel spoke, and they drew away many people after them (Acts 5: 36-37).
But saint John was not harmed by the corruption of his generation, but rather on the contrary he was a blessing for his generation, and a cause of repentance and good conduct for them.
John was great in that he was the son of mountains, who was brought up in the life of abnegation and ascetism.
He lived all his life in the deserts "till the day of his manifestation to Israel", growing and becoming "strong in spirit" (Luke 1:80). He lived as an ascet and did not "drink neither wine nor strong drink" (Luke 1:15); he was "clothed with camel'a hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (Mark 1:6).
In the desert, he learned prayer and meditation, he learned courage and lack of fear, and also firmness and faith; and he learned the strength which comes from abnegation.......
God prepared him in the desert, as He prepared the Holy Virgin in the temple.
He grew up courageous, not fearing any human being ...... fit for being the author of a mission.
He told the truth in all strength, and did not care about what would be the consequences......
King Herod sinned; and nobody had the courage to rebuke him or to confront him with truth, except John the Baptist. He was the only one who said to Herod: "It is not lawful for you to have her" (Matt. 14:4).
The king threw him into prison, but he did not care. An ascet like him who had relinquished everything, does not dread prison, even if his service is delayed. His thoughts during that, were:
"If God wills that he serves, then he will serve. And if God does not will, let His will be done. The important matter is to testify to the truth.
And it happened that John the Baptist was beheaded. But this voice which cries aloud in the desert, remained sounding in Herod's ear, disturbing his conscience, his thoughts, his sleep, his awakeness, and saying to him at every moment: "It is not lawful for you".
The voice of John did not die with the death of John.
Herod kept fearing John, even after his death. When he was informed about the strong predication and the miracles of Christ, he "said to his servants: "This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him" (Matt. 14:2).
John treated Herod like the others: he testified of the truth to him, because Herod was in need of this testimony.
He resembled the prophet Elijah in his blame of the king.
Elijah rebuked king Achab for his worship of the idols (1 Kings 18: 17-18); and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of his wife Jezabel who threatened to kill him. John the Baptist rebuked king Herod, and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of Herodia whom Herod wanted to marry, and who then became the cause of the murder of John (Matt. 14: 6-11).
Thus John walked "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17).
He called the people and said to them: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matt. 3:2). He was strong in his mission. He rebuked, criticised, and censured; and people accepted his criticism with an open heart.
The Scriptures say about that: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves: "We have Abraham as our father". For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3: 7-10).
JOHN THE BAPTIST'S ICON
John the Baptist's icon is the icon of the baptism of Christ by him.
But there are some who design an icon to John the Baptist like an angel with two wings and carrying his head on a plate in his hand.
They do that in consideration of the word of the Scriptures about him that he is the angel who prepares the way before the Lord (Mal.3:1), (Mark 1:2). And he really is so. As for carrying his head on a plate in his hand, that is true, because the martyrs carry their sufferings.
But this is a meditative icon and not a ritual icon.
It is supposed that icons which are put inside the churches, must be ritual icons. Therefore I refused to consecrate an icon like this in some churches in the countries of emigration. Why then?
The greatness of John the Baptist is not because he was called an angel. For all the pastors of churches have been called angels, and likewise the Lord gave this surname to all the seven churches in Asia (Apoc. 1:20), (Apoc. 2:3).
The greatness of John the Baptist also is not because he is a martyr carrying his sufferings. For there are tens of thousands, and rather millions of martyrs in the Church.
But his real greatness, is that he baptized Christ, the matter by which he was distinguished among the rest of the saints, and therefore he was surnamed the Baptist.
Hence the saint Church does not call him neither the angel John, nor John the martyr, nor the prophet John, but the Church calls him John the Baptist.
The ritual icon which represents him inside the church, is his image baptizing Christ. Likewise, his baptism of Christ is a feast of the Lord, which the Church celebrates. The fathers priests raise incense before this icon of the baptism; and they say whenever they go out of the sanctuary with incense: "Hail to you, O John son of Zacharias, the priest and son of a priest".
There is no other saint like him, whom the Church salutes in every raising of incense at evening and morning, and in every mass.
HIS BAPTISM OF CHRIST
The greatest act of John the Baptist, is his baptism of the Lord Christ.
Here we see two great situations of humility. The first is the coming of Christ to be baptized by his servant John. The second is that great prophet saying to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" (Matt. 3:14).
"I also am a sinner, in need of the baptism of repentance.
I am a teacher before these people, but before You, I am a disciple.
Before them, I am a prophet and an angel, but before You, I am dust and ashes.
I am a priest before them, but You are the source of my priesthood and every priesthood."
All the greatness that surrounded John, and all the tremendous popularity which he had, did not make him forget the insignificance of himself before Christ.......
He did like his mother Elizabeth when she said to the Holy Virgin: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
John said to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You". And the Lord did not say to him that he did not need, but He said: "Permit it to be so now" (Matt. 3:15), which is an astonishing expression from the mouth of the Lord, and is addressed to one of his servants.
He said to him, tenderly and gently: "I do not command you, but I ask for your permission, I ask for your agreement....... in order "to fulfill all righteousness.........."
NOT I
The Baptist was successful in his service.
"Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins" (Matt. 3:5).
Naturally the only One who did not confess sins when He presented Himself to baptism, was Christ, because He had absolutely no sins to confess.
When John saw the crouds increasing around him, he transferred their looks from him to Christ, meaning: "not I".
He made all his efforts in order to hide himself, and that Christ appears. This is the most distinguished virtue and the most profound work of this saint.
He said to the people: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11).
As he attracted them to another baptism which is greater than his baptism, so also he attracted them the more, to the author of this baptism, saying that He is stronger and higher and more ancient than him.
He said: "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose" (Mark 1:7). "After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me" (John 1:30). "I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent before Him" (Matt. 3:28).
The Baptist did not say all that, as mere words of humility,
or that he degraded his level before the people......
The true humility, as the saints say, is that man knows himself. And John, in his humble words, knew exactly who was he, and who was Christ? and he spoke out of truthfulness and out of humility.....
He was the greatest "among those born of women". But he, and all those born of women, are all mere servants before Christ; even the angels, as the apostle says: [But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, he says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him"] (Hebr. 1:6).
This saint did not seek his own glory, but he sought the kingdom of Christ.
He understood that "He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light" (John 1:8), "that all through him might believe" (John 1:7). He knew that he was simply a predecessor before the convoy of the coming king; all his work consisted of preparing the way for the king.
John was able to keep his ritual, and not to trespass over his limits.
For him selfishness was dead; and Christ was all in all.
That is a lesson to the servants who build themselves at the account of service, or to them who consider service as a simple field where they can manifest themselves!!
The most marvelous word that exhibits John's service, is his word about Christ: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). He also said about Him: "He who comes from above is above all ....... He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31). Thereby he indicates the divinity of Christ, because He came from heaven, therefore He is above all, including also John......
Hence, when the predication of Christ had begun and started to sway the atmosphere of service, John rejoiced and was glad (John 3:29). He said: "Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." As for me, I am merely the friend of the bridegroom, I look from afar and rejoice.
Thus he rendered the groom to the bridegroom.
He rendered to Him the church which he had prepared for Him through repentance, and he also rendered to Him his disciples, and he joyfully withdrew from the field, releasing the leadership to the Lord.
Nevertheless, while John humbled himself, he was raised up.
According to the word of the Lord Christ: "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). When John humbled himself and said: "I must decrease", the Lord exalted him, and made him the greatest among those born of women.
Of course he meant the greatest among "men" or "prophets" born of women. Because the Holy Virgin Mary, who is among those born of women, is undoubtedly greater than him.
During the feast of the Epiphany, we also remember our own baptism.
OUR OWN BAPTISM
Our baptism is something other than the baptism of John.
It is not simply a baptism for repentance. We note that when the apostle saint Paul was predicating in Ephesus, he asked the disciples there, saying: ["Into what then were you baptized?" So they said: "Into John's baptism." Then Paul said: "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19: 3-5).
Our baptism is a birth from water and the Spirit.
According to what the Lord said to Nicodemus: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).
Our baptism is death and resurrection with Christ.
As the apostle says to the Colossians about Christ: "buried wit Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him" (Col. 2:12).
He told the same meaning to the Romans: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.......For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection" (Rom. 6: 3-5).
Death here means the death of our ancient man.
As the apostle says: "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with" (Rom. 6:6).
We obtain salvation through our baptism.
As the Lord said: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
And as the apostle saint Paul said about it: "but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). And as also the apostle saint Peter said about the ark: "in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us, baptism" (1 Peter 3: 20-21).
Salvation through baptism means salvation from all sins before baptism. And this means justification and renovation:
Salvation from the original sin, and salvation from all the actual sins before baptism. Renovation means the renovation of our nature (Rom 6:4).
As the old man dies in baptism, so a new man is raised up in the likeness of Christ.
The apostle saint Paul said about that: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). That is, you have put on the righteousness that is in Him ..... (Here is the action of justification which is in baptism).
May the blessing of saint John the Baptist be with us all.
Many happy returns for you all.
4
The Epiphany
&
St. John The Baptist
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Second print, Cairo, September 1999
Name of the book: The Epiphany & St. John the Baptist
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: July 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Icon design: Tassony Sawsan
Deposition number at "The Library": 2504/97
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 37 - 5
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
MEDITATIONS UPON THE GLORIOUS
FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
The month of January brings to us several feasts: the beginning of the new year, the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany.
We thank God who gave us the blessing and the efficiency of all these feasts, in our lives.
While we celebrate the glorious feast of the Ephiphany, we are glad to stop sometime for meditation:
The feast of Epiphany is the feast of Baptism ......
This feast is also called the feast of the divine manifestation (the Theophania).
Because the Holy Trinity appeared in it: The Son is baptised, The Father says from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", and The Holy Spirit appears "like of a dove" (Matt. 3: 16-17). Hence the baptism of the Lord Christ shows the creed of the Holy Trinity.
Thus the baptism is always in the Name of the Holy Trinity,
according to the word of the Lord to His disciples before His Ascension: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). He did not say in the names, because the three are one, as it was mentioned in (1 John 5:7): "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one".
It is well that the Church has called this feast: "Eed El Ghetass", or the feast of the Immersion, (in Arabic: Eed means feast, and "El Ghetass" means immersion).
Because in it, the Church reminds the people that the Lord Christ was baptized by being immersed, as it was said that after being baptized, "When He has been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water" (Matt. 3:16). The Church also reminds the people that the faithful in the New Testament are being baptized by being immersed, (and not by being sprinkled with water, as it is done in some communities). The Ethiopian eunuch was baptized in this manner, at the beginning of the apostolic era, at the hands of Philip: "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away" (Acts 8:39).
Also because Baptism is a tincture, (Baptisma in Latin), and tinting is accomplished through immersion; and because Baptism is a burial with Christ (Col. 2:12), and burial is accomplished through placing inside the tomb (immersion), and cannot be represented by sprinkling with water ......
Likewise in all the ancient vestiges, we see that baptism was accomplished inside a recipient that was called the baptistery.
That proves that baptizing was accomplished through immersion, and not by sprinkling water.
We remember, during this feast, many spiritual and doctrinal meanings, whether as regards the baptism of the Lord Christ at the hands of John the Baptist, or as regards the importance of Baptism in the Church.......
We remember also that the Lord came to the baptism of John, while He was not in need of it.
But that was in order "to fulfill all righteousness", so that He would be without blame before men, even while He is not in need. That also establishes before us the principle of obedience and the principle of loyalty, without asking what profit it is to us?
He entered the baptism of John also in order to be our representative, or to take our place, just as He fasted instead of us, and just as He was crucified instead of us.
Many of His actions were for the others and not for Himself. He took our place to present to God the Father an image of the perfect man, who satisfies the Father by His life, as well He satisfies Him by His redemption of the human kind.
In His baptism, we remember his humility .....
We remember His love and His fidelity, and His tenderness in His conversation with John, when He says: "Permit it to be so now".
The baptism of Christ also reminds us of our baptism , and of the care of the Church for Baptism.
Baptism is the first sacrament of the Church, and is the door through which we enter to the other sacraments.
We say vulgarily: "we have christianised so and so", that is: we have batptised him; because he has become a christian through baptism. ..... That is an expression which is sound in its doctrinal meaning, and which reminds us of the word of Christ: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
Therefore the day of baptism is a feast as regards the child and his family.
In that day, the Church gives him three sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist also; and makes him ready to participate in the life of the Church. He becomes a member in it, and takes the first ecclesiastical certificate in his life.
The Church assigns a sponsor to the child, who will care for him spiritually, and very often it is the mother who is the sponsor to her child.
The mother is engaged before God and the Church to take care of her child in the fear of God, and to be his first teacher, who instructs him, and who gives him the practical training for all religious matters.
THE LORD'S HUMILITY
IN BAPTISM
The baptism of John was the baptism of repentance. The Lord Christ was not in need of repentance. Why then was He baptized?
He was baptized instead of the human kind in entering the baptism of repentance....
Likewise He fasted instead of us, while He was not in need of fasting, just as He was dead instead of us, while He was not deserving death......
All this was in order to offer to the Father a perfect image of the human kind, and to pay the price of our sins. Likewise He presented Himself to baptism, in order "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 4:15), so that nobody convicts Him of sin .... in order to be submissive to the Law, before everybody, although He is above the Law.....
Thus He walked with the crowds, as one of them, presenting Himself to the baptism of repentance.
What is this humility, which the Lord offers to us?! When John apologised saying: "I need to be baptized by You", the Lord replied: "Permit it to be so now"....
In the same manner He permitted to His mother who is exemplar in her purity, who gave birth to Him from the Holy Spirit without stain, to present herself "when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed ...... to present Him to the Lord" (Luke 22:2), while she absolutely was not in need of days of purification.
The Lord Christ was not a sinner to present Himself to the baptism of repentance, but He was a bearer of sins. He has borne all the sins of the world.
"Now this is the testimony of John" who baptized Him" (John 1:19....).
Christ has borne the sins of the world, and descended with them to the baptism; likewise He has borne these sins upon the Cross, and erased them with His blood .... "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
The Lord Christ, although He was Righteous without sin, and defied the Jews later on saying to them: "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46) ...... yet He accomplished the rite of the baptism of repentance. He did not omit this spiritual act to which the repented crowds presented themselves. We have found Him walking like the rest of the people who were sinners, and advancing toward the baptism of repentance.
All of them were baptized confessing their sins. But He was baptized bearing the sins of all the people.
He did this, lest a fault would be caught, or a defect would be counted, against Him. And also in order "to fulfill all righteousness".
Also in order "to fulfill all righteousness", His mother the Holy Virgin Mary acted with the same humility.
It was mentioned in the story of her entry with Him to the temple: [Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord: "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: "A pair of turledoves or two young pigeons"]. (Luke 2: 22-24) .......
It is astonishing that this expression is said about the Holy Virgin: "when the days of her purification.....were completed"....!! The Holy Spirit had sanctified her womb during the holy pregnancy; and she conceived without the stain of the original sin; and was absolutely not at all in need of purification ..... but, in order "to fulfill all righteousness", she submitted to the commandment of the law, while she was not in need of that.
Verily there are matters which the human being is not compelled to do, but he does them in order not to scandalise others and in order to fulfill all righteousness.....
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He obtained the baptism at the hands of John.
The greatest High Priest, who grants priesthood, obtained the baptism from one of his priests, from one of his sons.... from a person who had confessed saying to Him: "I need to be baptized by You" (Matt. 3:14); and likewise had confessed saying: "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose".....
The priesthood of the Lord Christ is of Melchisedek, and the prieshood of John is of Aaron.
It is well known that the priesthood of Melchisedek is greater than the priesthood of Aaron, as our teacher the apostle saint Paul explained in (Hebrews 7). Likewise Melchisedek blessed our father Abraham in whose loins Aaron was (Hebrews 7). Nevertheless, with all humility, He who was "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4), presented Himself to obtain the baptism at the hands of one of the sons of Aaron!
In this, there is also some veneration from His part to the priesthood in His time.
Likewise, when He healed the leper, He said to him: "go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (Matt. 8:4).
Verily the Baptism's story is full of numerous examples of humility.
Also because of the Lord's humility, after all the glorious matters that appeared during His baptism, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of John ....... after all this "He went up on a mountain", in order to be tempted by Satan, and permitted Satan to tempt Him, in all audacity, or more accurately speaking, in all pride ...... and the Lord replied to him in all quietness, and defeated Satan with His humility ......
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He submitted to the Law in age as well as in baptism.
He waited till He reached the age of thirty according to the Law; while it was so easy for Him to begin many years before that, He who at the age of twelve, amazed the old teachers, "and all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers" (Luke 2:47) ...... But He waited till the age of thirty, and waited till He was baptized, and till He passed a period of solitude upon the mountain ......and then He began working ......
Christ humbled Himself from the beginning of His mission, in order to reply to the sin of the first Adam.
The first Adam responded to the incitement to become like God (Gen 3:5). That was undoubtedly a kind of pride. Then the Lord Christ the Son of God came, "taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7), walking in humility, in His birth in a manger representing poverty (Luke 2: 7), and also in His baptism at the hands of John who was in need to be baptized by Him .........
John the Baptist who baptized Him, was humble.......
although he was great, and the Lord Himself had attested of his greatness, and also the angel of the Lord, as we shall see.
THE BAPTIST'S GREATNESS
People certified of the greatness of many, but their testimony was
either fictitious and false, or ignorant, or complimentary ......
But God Himself and His angel attested of the greatness of John the Baptist.
The angel of the Lord announced his birth to Zacharias his father: "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord" (Luke 1:15).
This expression is very astonishing: to be "great in the sight of the Lord", before whom every human being stands, feeling his insignificance, as our father Abraham said: "Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord" (Gen. 18:27).
The expression "great in the sight of the Lord" does not mean His own feeling of his greatness, but it means that the Lord has given him greatness in order to stand before Him.
Thus greatness had been united with John before his birth, as the Lord testified.
Great works have been said about this great prophet: among them is that " he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He sill also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord", "and many will rejoice at his birth" (Luke 1: 16-17, 14) .......
In all this we ask the angel who announced his birth, about the secret of this wonderful greatness, and he replies saying that
"He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15).
Verily, this is the secret of John's greatness. We have heard in the Holy Bible that the Holy Spirit came upon many people: the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samsun (Judges 13:15), upon Saul (1 Sam. 10: 10-11), upon David (1 Sam. 16:13), and upon many prophets. But we absolutely did not hear about anybody that "He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb". We note here the expression "filled with the Holy Spirit", and not only the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him. This matter is special to John the Baptist, and to nobody before him. But perhaps we ask:
When was John the Baptist filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb?
That was in the word of the Lord: "And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). Then Elizabeth "spoke with a loud voice and said" to the Holy Virgin Mary: "..... For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" (Luke 1:44).
At this moment, the moment of the greeting of Mary the mother of God, John was filled with the Holy Spirit, while he was in the womb of his mother.
By the Spirit, the babe (in Elizabeth's womb) felt the divine babe in the Holy Virgin's womb, and rejoiced at Him and was as if he ran to meet Him!! It was said that he leaped for joy, as the Lord said to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). What is astonishing is that Elizabeth felt that her babe leaped for joy in her womb. It is possible for her to feel a movement (leaped).
But I remained perplexed for sometime before the expression "for joy".
I was perplexed before two things. The first is the joy of the babe. The feeling of a babe in his mother's womb! The second is the mother's feeling that the movement of her babe inside her, is a movement for joy!!
It is undoubtedly a gift from the Spirit, because it was said about Elizabeth in that moment that she "was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). This revelation can be a gift of the Spirit..... And here my perplexity ends......
It was not only the angel of the Lord who testified of the greatness of John, but more than that, the Lord of glory Himself testified when He said: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: "Behold, I send My messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way before You. Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:7-11).
The Scriptures also said about him that he is an angel:
"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face" (Mark 1:2). The Lord Christ Himself certified this surname (Matt. 11:10).
This prophecy was mentioned about him in the book of the prophet Malachi: "Behold, I send My messenger" (Mal/ 3:1).
John also was a priest among the sons of Aaron, a son of the prophet Zacharias.......
The greatest matter in the life of John is that he baptized the Lord Christ, glory be to Him.
The Lord Christ came to him to be baptized by him like other people. John accomplished the baptism of Christ out of obedience, and deserved to see the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove, and to hear the voice of the Father saying: "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). Thus he enjoyed the Holy Trinity both spiritually and sensationally.......
God rather guided John to Himself before the baptism:
Saint John the Baptist said about that: "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is ths Son of God" (John 1: 33-34).
The greatness of John the Baptist appears in that he accomplished his great mission in a short time, perhaps six months or a little longer.
These six months are the difference between his age and the corporal age of the Lord Christ, according to what the archangel Gabriel said in his annunciation to the Holy Virgin of the Holy conception: "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren" (Luke 1:36).
Each of both Christ and the Baptist began his life at the age of thirty. John served during these six months. And when Christ appeared, he began to hide. In this short period, that saint was able to lead many people to repentance, and to testify with a strong testimony to the Lord, and to prepare the way before Christ, and he presented to the whole world a practical example of the fact that:
the strength of service is not in its length, but in its deepness, and in the amount of its efficiency and the amount of its influence, and in its
fruit.
Is it not astonishing that the Lord does not let many of the useful servants, serve for a long time?! It is enough that they have presented an excellent sample of service and righteousness. They have presented an example to be followed. The Lord was satisfied with what they had presented, and He let them go in peace.
John presented an excellent example of serious service, and profound spiritualities, which were agreeable to God who let them go in peace.
The greatness of John is distinguished in that he lived in his perfection in spite of the darkness of his genereation.
It was a wicked age. Its spiritual leaders were the most wicked in that age, like the priests and the chiefs of the Jews. the scribes, the pharisees, and the saduccees. During that age, sometime before, there rose up some lying teachers like Theudas and Judas of Galilee about whom Gamaliel spoke, and they drew away many people after them (Acts 5: 36-37).
But saint John was not harmed by the corruption of his generation, but rather on the contrary he was a blessing for his generation, and a cause of repentance and good conduct for them.
John was great in that he was the son of mountains, who was brought up in the life of abnegation and ascetism.
He lived all his life in the deserts "till the day of his manifestation to Israel", growing and becoming "strong in spirit" (Luke 1:80). He lived as an ascet and did not "drink neither wine nor strong drink" (Luke 1:15); he was "clothed with camel'a hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (Mark 1:6).
In the desert, he learned prayer and meditation, he learned courage and lack of fear, and also firmness and faith; and he learned the strength which comes from abnegation.......
God prepared him in the desert, as He prepared the Holy Virgin in the temple.
He grew up courageous, not fearing any human being ...... fit for being the author of a mission.
He told the truth in all strength, and did not care about what would be the consequences......
King Herod sinned; and nobody had the courage to rebuke him or to confront him with truth, except John the Baptist. He was the only one who said to Herod: "It is not lawful for you to have her" (Matt. 14:4).
The king threw him into prison, but he did not care. An ascet like him who had relinquished everything, does not dread prison, even if his service is delayed. His thoughts during that, were:
"If God wills that he serves, then he will serve. And if God does not will, let His will be done. The important matter is to testify to the truth.
And it happened that John the Baptist was beheaded. But this voice which cries aloud in the desert, remained sounding in Herod's ear, disturbing his conscience, his thoughts, his sleep, his awakeness, and saying to him at every moment: "It is not lawful for you".
The voice of John did not die with the death of John.
Herod kept fearing John, even after his death. When he was informed about the strong predication and the miracles of Christ, he "said to his servants: "This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him" (Matt. 14:2).
John treated Herod like the others: he testified of the truth to him, because Herod was in need of this testimony.
He resembled the prophet Elijah in his blame of the king.
Elijah rebuked king Achab for his worship of the idols (1 Kings 18: 17-18); and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of his wife Jezabel who threatened to kill him. John the Baptist rebuked king Herod, and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of Herodia whom Herod wanted to marry, and who then became the cause of the murder of John (Matt. 14: 6-11).
Thus John walked "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17).
He called the people and said to them: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matt. 3:2). He was strong in his mission. He rebuked, criticised, and censured; and people accepted his criticism with an open heart.
The Scriptures say about that: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves: "We have Abraham as our father". For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3: 7-10).
JOHN THE BAPTIST'S ICON
John the Baptist's icon is the icon of the baptism of Christ by him.
But there are some who design an icon to John the Baptist like an angel with two wings and carrying his head on a plate in his hand.
They do that in consideration of the word of the Scriptures about him that he is the angel who prepares the way before the Lord (Mal.3:1), (Mark 1:2). And he really is so. As for carrying his head on a plate in his hand, that is true, because the martyrs carry their sufferings.
But this is a meditative icon and not a ritual icon.
It is supposed that icons which are put inside the churches, must be ritual icons. Therefore I refused to consecrate an icon like this in some churches in the countries of emigration. Why then?
The greatness of John the Baptist is not because he was called an angel. For all the pastors of churches have been called angels, and likewise the Lord gave this surname to all the seven churches in Asia (Apoc. 1:20), (Apoc. 2:3).
The greatness of John the Baptist also is not because he is a martyr carrying his sufferings. For there are tens of thousands, and rather millions of martyrs in the Church.
But his real greatness, is that he baptized Christ, the matter by which he was distinguished among the rest of the saints, and therefore he was surnamed the Baptist.
Hence the saint Church does not call him neither the angel John, nor John the martyr, nor the prophet John, but the Church calls him John the Baptist.
The ritual icon which represents him inside the church, is his image baptizing Christ. Likewise, his baptism of Christ is a feast of the Lord, which the Church celebrates. The fathers priests raise incense before this icon of the baptism; and they say whenever they go out of the sanctuary with incense: "Hail to you, O John son of Zacharias, the priest and son of a priest".
There is no other saint like him, whom the Church salutes in every raising of incense at evening and morning, and in every mass.
HIS BAPTISM OF CHRIST
The greatest act of John the Baptist, is his baptism of the Lord Christ.
Here we see two great situations of humility. The first is the coming of Christ to be baptized by his servant John. The second is that great prophet saying to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" (Matt. 3:14).
"I also am a sinner, in need of the baptism of repentance.
I am a teacher before these people, but before You, I am a disciple.
Before them, I am a prophet and an angel, but before You, I am dust and ashes.
I am a priest before them, but You are the source of my priesthood and every priesthood."
All the greatness that surrounded John, and all the tremendous popularity which he had, did not make him forget the insignificance of himself before Christ.......
He did like his mother Elizabeth when she said to the Holy Virgin: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
John said to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You". And the Lord did not say to him that he did not need, but He said: "Permit it to be so now" (Matt. 3:15), which is an astonishing expression from the mouth of the Lord, and is addressed to one of his servants.
He said to him, tenderly and gently: "I do not command you, but I ask for your permission, I ask for your agreement....... in order "to fulfill all righteousness.........."
NOT I
The Baptist was successful in his service.
"Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins" (Matt. 3:5).
Naturally the only One who did not confess sins when He presented Himself to baptism, was Christ, because He had absolutely no sins to confess.
When John saw the crouds increasing around him, he transferred their looks from him to Christ, meaning: "not I".
He made all his efforts in order to hide himself, and that Christ appears. This is the most distinguished virtue and the most profound work of this saint.
He said to the people: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11).
As he attracted them to another baptism which is greater than his baptism, so also he attracted them the more, to the author of this baptism, saying that He is stronger and higher and more ancient than him.
He said: "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose" (Mark 1:7). "After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me" (John 1:30). "I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent before Him" (Matt. 3:28).
The Baptist did not say all that, as mere words of humility,
or that he degraded his level before the people......
The true humility, as the saints say, is that man knows himself. And John, in his humble words, knew exactly who was he, and who was Christ? and he spoke out of truthfulness and out of humility.....
He was the greatest "among those born of women". But he, and all those born of women, are all mere servants before Christ; even the angels, as the apostle says: [But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, he says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him"] (Hebr. 1:6).
This saint did not seek his own glory, but he sought the kingdom of Christ.
He understood that "He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light" (John 1:8), "that all through him might believe" (John 1:7). He knew that he was simply a predecessor before the convoy of the coming king; all his work consisted of preparing the way for the king.
John was able to keep his ritual, and not to trespass over his limits.
For him selfishness was dead; and Christ was all in all.
That is a lesson to the servants who build themselves at the account of service, or to them who consider service as a simple field where they can manifest themselves!!
The most marvelous word that exhibits John's service, is his word about Christ: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). He also said about Him: "He who comes from above is above all ....... He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31). Thereby he indicates the divinity of Christ, because He came from heaven, therefore He is above all, including also John......
Hence, when the predication of Christ had begun and started to sway the atmosphere of service, John rejoiced and was glad (John 3:29). He said: "Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." As for me, I am merely the friend of the bridegroom, I look from afar and rejoice.
Thus he rendered the groom to the bridegroom.
He rendered to Him the church which he had prepared for Him through repentance, and he also rendered to Him his disciples, and he joyfully withdrew from the field, releasing the leadership to the Lord.
Nevertheless, while John humbled himself, he was raised up.
According to the word of the Lord Christ: "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). When John humbled himself and said: "I must decrease", the Lord exalted him, and made him the greatest among those born of women.
Of course he meant the greatest among "men" or "prophets" born of women. Because the Holy Virgin Mary, who is among those born of women, is undoubtedly greater than him.
During the feast of the Epiphany, we also remember our own baptism.
OUR OWN BAPTISM
Our baptism is something other than the baptism of John.
It is not simply a baptism for repentance. We note that when the apostle saint Paul was predicating in Ephesus, he asked the disciples there, saying: ["Into what then were you baptized?" So they said: "Into John's baptism." Then Paul said: "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19: 3-5).
Our baptism is a birth from water and the Spirit.
According to what the Lord said to Nicodemus: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).
Our baptism is death and resurrection with Christ.
As the apostle says to the Colossians about Christ: "buried wit Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him" (Col. 2:12).
He told the same meaning to the Romans: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.......For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection" (Rom. 6: 3-5).
Death here means the death of our ancient man.
As the apostle says: "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with" (Rom. 6:6).
We obtain salvation through our baptism.
As the Lord said: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
And as the apostle saint Paul said about it: "but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). And as also the apostle saint Peter said about the ark: "in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us, baptism" (1 Peter 3: 20-21).
Salvation through baptism means salvation from all sins before baptism. And this means justification and renovation:
Salvation from the original sin, and salvation from all the actual sins before baptism. Renovation means the renovation of our nature (Rom 6:4).
As the old man dies in baptism, so a new man is raised up in the likeness of Christ.
The apostle saint Paul said about that: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). That is, you have put on the righteousness that is in Him ..... (Here is the action of justification which is in baptism).
May the blessing of saint John the Baptist be with us all.
Many happy returns for you all.
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