(Mathew 9: 9-13)
This is how one becomes Christ’s apostle
Everybody is invited by Christ to folow Him and bear witness to the fact. To follow Christ, one needs to deny themselves and bear their cross. Thus, they die in Christ and live in Christ. And by having this treasure within them, this experience –the grace of the Holy Spirit– which cannot be hidden, they bear witness to it. They reveal this true life which is within them and thus, they become the apostle of Christ.
The reason why Christ hasn’t healed us yet from our passions is that we go to Christ with a kind of self self sufficiency and self righteousness; we don’t go as sinners in need of healing and salvation. When we don’t want to identify and confess our sin, we indeed exclude ourselves from the care of Christ, so it seems as if Christ is not watching over us at all. The sicker and more sinful you are, the more appropriate to be taken in Christ’s hands and be healed by Christ. Once you start realising your sin, confessing it, and taking up the appropriate stance in the eyes of God, God immediately responds.
Christ came to find and save every sinner. If you still don’t feel that Christ has found you, it means you don’t think of yourself as a sinner or as somebody who needs healing.
Transcribed talks by Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos
From: Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.
Feast Day of the apostle and evangelist Mathew
