9th Sunday of Matthew
Matt. 14: 22-34
August 10th, 2014
No matter what it is, God loves us. Whatever is necessary for us to go through, we’ll go through
Night has fallen and the disciples are travelling in their boat upon the sea when a storm arises. The disciples are worried and troubled, and then at some point, the Lord appears, walking on the waves.
Why are things like this? The Lord loves and cares for His disciples, but life is life. It doesn’t mean that the road will be strewn with flowers for them, that whatever stands in their way will retreat and all the obstacles will disappear.
Here in this world we do what is asked of us. No matter what it is, God is with us, He loves us. Whatever is necessary for us to go through, we’ll go through: whether misfortunes, or tortures, or obstacles, or dangers, or sicknesses, or pain, or threats, or anything else. Everything that God has decided should come will come. We need to learn to be patient, to be ready for anything, to endure. We need to learn to bow our head respectfully, to bend our neck and take up our yoke. And of course we need to be grateful and to thank God no matter what comes our way. And within these trials God will find us and will work a miracle before our very eyes – in one way one time, and in another way another. Sometimes this will be done exteriorly, sometimes only within us interiorly.
This life is like a weave, and through it passes the threads of the grace of God, the energies of God, God’s miraculous interventions, God’s uncreated divine energy. And in this way, day by day, our life is transformed from a simply human existence to the life in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. A human person is transformed from the natural man that we all are into the man alive in Christ, alive in the Holy Spirit
Transcribed talks by Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos
From: Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.
Translated by fr. Matthew Penney
Upon the Waves
