(8th Sunday of Pentecost)

By St. John of Kronstadt 

"When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, 'This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.' But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat'" (Matthew 14:15–16).

One day the Lord sailed on a ship alone to a deserted place to pray: the people, hearing about this, followed Him from the cities on foot. Coming out of the boat, Jesus saw a multitude of people and had compassion on them and healed their sick. When evening came, His disciples came to Him and said: "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." How? What are you saying, apostles of Christ? For the people to leave their Lord for the sake of food and drink and deprive themselves of His conversation, sweeter than honey? Wasn’t it He who said: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink... Is not life more than food... But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:25, 33). Oh, no, the people will not leave the Lord: what do they care about food and drink? Food and drink are always with them; but the Lord in the flesh is not always, but He Himself is food and drink for them; look how they greedily listen to His every word, how they gaze into His divine face: oh, this is true pleasure for them - to see and hear the Lord Himself - and they forgot about food and drink. Yes, He Himself will arrange a wonderful meal for them.

This Gospel teaches us that hearing the word of God and, in general, caring for the enlightenment, sanctification, and strengthening of the immortal soul is most precious to man, and that food and drink are secondary things and will be added to a person who seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness: "for he who labors is worthy of sustenance" (Matt. 10:10). In the same way, in the wilderness, the Lord nourished everyone with the gift of a miraculously prepared meal for the labor of hearing His word. Further, the Gospel also teaches that we should share our last good with our neighbors who have need of it, and not have the least greed and avarice, and that a person needs very little in order to satisfy hunger and thirst – only daily bread and something more rich; that various delicacies and drinks do not constitute our daily sustenance and can be consumed only occasionally; otherwise, they will weaken our body and soul.

Our soul, brothers and sisters, is immeasurably more precious and noble than the body: it is the image of God, that is, to put it simply, like a portrait of God, and is immortal; endowed with reason and free will, with the ability to be sanctified by the grace of God, to ascend higher and higher on the steps of virtue, to become more and more like God - to become deified and achieve the greatest blessedness in God. The body is earth and decay and must certainly die and turn to dust from which it was taken; at the resurrection of the dead it will rise again as a spiritual body. Meanwhile, our soul is in a state of the most miserable fall, in a state of darkening, removal from God and slavery to the devil, sin and passions. She perishes in sins and can perish forever, tormented in unquenchable fire. What do we all need to be more concerned about during this temporary wandering on earth? About the enlightenment of the soul, about its salvation, about approaching God, from Whom we have departed through sin, about the truth that we have trampled upon, to which we have become strangers, about holiness in all life and the rejection of evil life: this is what it is about; and then about food and drink and clothing, but to take care of it moderately, impartially, as if they were secondary and temporary objects. Let us not, brothers and sisters, pervert God's order; let us be more concerned about spiritual enlightenment, nourishment, consolation, salvation, and only then about earthly, so-called blessings – food, clothing, housing. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.