Christ calls the two sons of Zebedee, Peter and Andrew, and immediately, they leave their nets and follow Christ. They’re willing to sacrifice everything in order to follow Christ, to serve Him, and become the “fishers of men” that Christ has called them to be. Their response is astonishing, childlike in its innocence and manly in its ready and courageous response. They left the security of their father, their homes and families, their livelihood, everything, to follow Christ. Often, they didn’t know where their next meal would come from or where they would lay their heads to sleep. After Christ’s resurrection, they were imprisoned and persecuted, tortured, and, eventually crucified for sharing the Gospel, the Good News that Christ the long-awaited Messiah, had come to offer new life—eternal life—to all, a new identity to us fallen sons and daughters of Adam.
In other words, in calling them to be “fishers of men,” Christ God was not calling them to a life of ease or even physical safety, but rather, of self-denial, of service, of dying to self—even at the cost of their earthly lives so they could enable others to attain to eternal life. He called them to put Christ and His Church above all things. He was preparing them to take up the cross. And Christ calls on us to do the same if we are to be made fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, life with Him now and life with Him for all eternity.
In last Sunday’s Gospel Christ proclaims, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me… and he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10: 37, 38). We also hear St. Peter’s response, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
Through their communion with God, the disciples grew in love for their fellow man. This is the natural fruit born from a growing relationship with God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, these simple fishermen became great fishers of men, just as Christ said they would. At great cost to themselves, they brought the world to the knowledge and love of Christ and His salvation through their witness, their leadership, their courage and love, and yes, their martyrdom.
We see this same example of selfless and Christ-centered love in the Saints of North America whom we commemorate today. They risked their physical lives on this continent to bring the life-saving Gospel and Orthodox Faith, the very presence of Christ, to this spiritually barren land. All of them suffered—some even martyrdom, like St. Juvenal and St. Peter, just as the Apostles did—to preach the timeless truth of Christ for love of a people they didn’t even know.
Later, as the number of Orthodox increased through conversion and immigration, they reassured their scattered, uncertain flock that it is in their grounding, their identity in Christ in His Church, that they (and we) find our true home—beyond any ethnic or national identities and beyond what it means to be an American or, at first, in the case of Alaska, good Russians. No, instead, they came to make men and women true Christians, to introduce them to the knowledge and love of God. Two of them went from being missionaries on the frontier to being two of the greatest Patriarch Saints of modern Russia. St. John Kochurov became the first clergyman to be martyred by the Bolsheviks after returning to Russia after serving years in America.
We celebrate their legacy of love, courage, and zeal for the Gospel today and ask for their prayers in our own efforts in this land—with all its challenges wrought by aggressive humanism and secularism—to grow in courage to share the Gospel and the Orthodox Faith in this land that is once again spiritually dry and thirsty.
We ask them to pray for us because being “fishers of men” isn’t just a calling for the Apostles and the clergy, but for all baptized Orthodox. By virtue of our Chrismation, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and empowered to live this life to God’s glory—if we are willing, if we are willing to live out our baptism and serve God, compelled by love for our fellow man and woman.
Christ calls on us in today’s Gospel to be “fishers of men” too in our homes, our businesses, at the grocery store, at school, to serve and evangelize in His name (this is what it means to witness and share the Gospel). It’s a common mistake to think that it’s the priest’s responsibility alone to evangelize and witness the faith or it’s the priest’s job alone to be a servant. In reality, the priest is here to equip the people of his flock in discovering, growing, and using their gifts and talents to serve God and build up the Church. But all of us as baptized Orthodox are called to evangelize, to witness to the truth of the love of Christ. This is what it means to be “fishers of men.” St. Tikhon puts it this way, “The spread of Christ’s faith ought to be near and precious to the heart of every Orthodox Christian.”
And, we remember Christ’s parting words to His disciples as He was ascending to heaven, “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them ALL things that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). Christ commands us: Keep the Faith and share it!
We witness (martyr) to the truth and living faith we share as Orthodox as we daily struggle and strive to pray and repent, to live differently, in accordance with the Gospel, in what we support and what we reject as Orthodox living in an increasingly pagan land in need of being evangelized anew. We say yes to the life in God and being fishers of men through our participation in the worship of the Church, our offerings of fellowship with others, in our use of our gifts, talents, and treasure to build up ourselves and the church.
Our life takes on real purpose when we take our Christian faith from inside and reflect it on the outside. As fishers of men we witness to the truth of the reclamation, the healing of the human soul. We take what God has done and is doing in our lives [healing us, growing us] and share it with those around us, living out our faith (however imperfectly but sincerely we do so) in witness to the Truth that Christ alone is.
Authenticity speaks, our witness speaks, but it costs us something: it costs us our time, coming to worship even when we don’t feel like it, serving, singing, coming to Vespers more often as well as Divine Liturgy, greeting our visitors as our most honored guests, loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, seeking for ways to help grow the church so we can provide more opportunities for people to find us and growth and heal with us.
If we want to see our church grow, if we want to see Annapolis and the Chesapeake changed into a God-loving place, if we want to see others experience the healing in Christ we have, if we want to see and experience strong families and our children growing confidently in the knowledge and love of God and their identity firmly grounded in Him in the midst of all the confusion whirling around us , then we come to see ourselves as “fishers of men,” as Christ’s servants, striving above all to live this life for God’s glory in authentic witness to the truth that He is. May each of us pray for such love to be His true witnesses, fishers of men. And may we beseech the holy Saints of North America to pray for our efforts to glorify God with our lives!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, June 22, 2014
All Saints of North America
Epistle: Hebrews 11:33-12:2 (Saints); Romans 2:10-16
Gospel: Matthew 4:25-5:12 (Saints); 4:18-23
