Unbelief

Unbelief: The Ultimate Sickness

Humankind’s ultimate sickness, is that of unbelief. This world is the place of preparation for our life in eternity, the place where we are prepared for the Kingdom that is to come. Within this world, Our Lord Jesus Christ established a hospital in which the medicine for the cure of our sickness is available, and this hospital of the soul is none other than the Church.

This world does not provide the medicine for that which ails us, for the only medicine that can heal us, is Christ Himself. If we are unwilling to receive this medicine, we will never be healed, and will never know the joys of the eternal Kingdom that awaits us. This illness that awaits a cure is unbelief, and this unbelief is based on our failure to avail ourselves to the medicine that is abundantly available within the life of the Church.

Belief comes as a free gift from a God Who “so love us that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, will have eternal life (John 3:16)”. All we need to do is cooperate with God’s grace, and unbelief will disappear.

When we receive the Word of God into our heart, we, like the Apostle Thomas, will have touched His wounds, and will know the Lord, personally. When we confess our sins, and receive Christ into our life, we will have thrust our hand into His side, and we will believe. Unbelief, at this very moment in time, will have no place to reside in our heart, and like the Apostle Thomas, we will know the peace that comes with a life in Christ.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Wednesday August 17, 2016 / August 4, 2016
9th Week after Pentecost. Tone seven.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)

Holy Seven Youths (the “Seven Sleepers”) of Ephesus: Maximilian, Jamblicus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus (250 & 5th c.).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas (Prozgrov) (1930).
New Hieromartyr Michael, Martyrs Simeon and Demetrius (1937)
Martyr Eudocia of Persia (362).
Martyr Eleutherius of Constantinople (4th c.).
New Hieromartyr Cosmas of Aitolia, Equal to the Apostles (1779) (Greek).
“Kazan-Penza” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Martyr Ia and 9,000 with her in Persia (Greek).
Martyr Thathuil (Greek).

Scripture Readings

1 Corinthians 13:4-14:5

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Matthew 20:1-16

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

8 “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there isknowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Prophecy and Tongues

14 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.