Holy Wisdom Chapel
Homily for July 9th
Once was a young monk who asked an elder, “What good thing shall I do and thus be saved?” The old man replied, “God alone knows what is good. But I’ve heard it said that someone inquired of Abba Nisteros, the friend of Abba Antony, “What good work shall I do? and that he replied, “Not all works are alike. For Scripture says that Abraham was hospitable, and God was with him. Elijah loved solitary prayer, and God was with him. And David was humble, and God was with him. Thus, whatever you see your soul to desire according to God, do that thing and you shall keep your heart safe.”
In this morning’s Gospel, we see a variation of this dynamic, with Jesus offering two very personal words to individuals who seek to follow him. To the first, he says, “Foxes have their holes and the birds of heaven have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” In other words, following Jesus precludes a safe and settled existence. Such following always involves risk. To the second man’s request, Jesus says “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.” meaning that there is nothing that takes priority over following Jesus‘ call to discipleship. Again, that word is searing in its challenge and calls for the disciple’s deep faith in response.
It is significant that Jesus’ responses to the two disciples are immediately followed by his boat trip with the disciples across the Sea of Galilee. Note that Jesus leads the disciples into the boat: they follow him in, and during the trip, a huge lake storm occurs that threatens to swamp them. The Greek word is seismos, which literally means earthquake. So we’re talking about here is a violent storm and understandably the disciples are terrified. They wake Jesus, who has been sleeping in the boat and cry out “Save us, Lord! We are perishing!” Jesus takes this opportunity to show them that their fear can be transformed as he rebukes the storm and brings the sea to a great calm. The disciples are left awestruck wondering, “What sort of man is this that the seas obey him?”
It’s important for us to realize what really is going on here. It’s much more than simply a colorful story. Woven into the narrative, this Gospel is deeply symbolic because it reveals the way discipleship so often works. It is the movement from call, from the decision to follow Jesus, to the crisis and struggle that inevitably come after this, and then finally to peace and calm. What Matthew is saying quite forcefully is that following Jesus will demand from us every ounce of faith and courage that we have, making us rely on Jesus totally -- and then, and only then, shall we know the great calm, the great peace that comes after this.
I suspect each of us here has at some point heard a “word” that has helped to define our life path. It’s a word we hear more in our heart than in our ears, and becomes our vocation: whether through marriage, a profession, our monastic vocation... What makes all the difference is when we feel it as a personal response to God’s mysterious call in our life: the call to follow Jesus. But let us have no illusions. Our faith will be tested. But there’s comfort in knowing that simply because we have embraced the call doesn’t mean that our life will unfold without stress, without crisis, without the storm on the lake. It surely will. But Jesus is in the boat, and our little faith will grow as we learn to trust in him ever more completely, and then finally we shall come to the point where we know a great calm.
