3 ^rd Gospel Reading

(Mark 16:9-20)

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.  And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.  And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.  After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.  And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.  Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.  So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. 

Any false teaching about the Truth is a serpent; any rebellion against the God-incarnate Savior is poison.  This all fatally stings the soul, poisoning it and putting it into eternal, poisoned sleep.  Truth comforts and enlivens the heart, while falsehood tortures the heart and is death to the heart’s true life. 

Everything in this fallen world rushing toward final perdition is up in arms in its opposition to Christ’s purity.  What does not the world dream up, what does it not do, to hide from people’s hearts the light coming down from Heaven!  One need not be particularly religious, but only honest and fair, to see our old earth writhing with snakes and sparkling with death-dealing springs.  Our eyes have become so innured to seeing evil that we have become used to failing to notice dangers. Out of pity for us, and lest our strength should fail, the Lord protects and covers us, hiding from us the worst of reality.  However, the Lord does not take away our capacity to distinguish between good and evil, for in that lies the purpose of our temporal life.

The temptations toward evil happen in the realm of our freedom.  We have the capacity to stand up to the temptations, but not everyone strives to stand firm in truth and purity. Yet our incorporeal enemy battles against us not just daily, but every single minute of the day. One can resist evil only by tying oneself like a slender little twig to the unshakable trunk of eternal truth and the utmost fullness of life, to the trunk that is Christ.  To entrust yourself completely to Him in whose mouth throughout all of eternity there has been no falsehood, to put your trust in the Savior and to love Him more than your own life, and in case of doubt, to put Him over and above your intellectual faculties: that is what it means to love God “more than your own life!” Christ is the Living God of salvation, mercy, and love.  One can tie oneself to that love only through faith in the fact that Christ is God Incarnate, and that all of His words are eternal life for everyone who obeys them. And it is against the very attachment God expects from each of us that Satan, dark lord of this world, is doing battle, with all the hatred and savage frenzy he can muster to put the world through convulsions.

The precursors of antichrist, utilizing the difficulties of doing battle with the corruption of the world in the world, shout about the “undesirability” of Christ’s teachings.  They call the demands of sin the “needs of nature.”  Thousands, millions, of people give up their hearts to unbridled, shameless sin, without putting up any opposition to it; their hearts being bitten by lack of faith in the coming just retribution begins their fall.

In the face of sin, the disbelieving heart is weak and without a firm foundation.  That is why the whirlwinds of evil in the world strive to scatter the faith existing in the world. Yet, no matter how or by whom in this world faith might be scattered, in the coming world of Christ, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  Whosoever unhypocritically calls upon Christ will be saved through his faith, for the Lord and His Name are omnipresent.

Whosoever calls upon, has faith in, and brings his dying soul to the pure spring of Christ, receives from God the power to pick up and crush serpents, and to drink deadly poison and yet remain well. Satan does not breathe his deadly breath toward one who protects himself. He rages all about, enters the breast, and squeezes the heart, but dares not, and cannot enter the holy human heart; man is saved through faith, which burns Satan.  Like fire, a mind enlightened by faith burns up all of the tricks and contrivances of evil.  The grace of the Spirit reveals higher knowledge, and shines within man, transfiguring his entire makeup.

True faith is not blind.  It does not brush off tempting questions and whispers, but looks at any form of evil directly in the face, sees it for what it is, and denounces it.  This gives truly faithful people heavenly peace in the heart, blessed and unshakable calm in the soul, for they have risen above the serpents crawling in the dust and above the springs of dead water in that dust.  There are no more lifeless waters for those who have tasted of the joy of the Resurrection.

Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)