Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου
«Απόστολος –Sparks from the Apostles».

ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΣΧΑ

(ΟΙ ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ)
Μετάφραση στά Αγγλικά από τόν π. Αστέριος Γεροστέργιο

EASTER SUNDAY

Acts of the Apostles 1:1-8

WORKS

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all
that Jesus began both to do and teach.

-Acts 1:1

Christ, beloved, the founder of our Holy Church, was a teacher.  He taught things that no one before Him had ever taught, and you can be sure that on one, no matter how wise he may be, will ever say greater things than those which Christ has preached.  His teaching was the highest of all teaching.  There is none higher.  Those who read the Bible without prejudice will tell you that of all the other teachings heard both in ancient times and today, no matter how they may dazzle people, none can compare to the teachings of Christ an all are far below that very pinnacle of Christ’s divine teaching.  You, too, beloved, open you Bible and read just one page, any page.  Wherever you open the Bible, you will see that a river of pure gold runs before you.

Read, for example, the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  Read it carefully, and you will be convinced how right the philosopher was who said that if Christ had but told this one parable only, it would have been enough to prove that He was not a man but God.  God, who created man, knows man’s heart, knows how he thinks and acts.  Because of this, the teaching of Christ, in spite of the severity which it seems to have, corresponds to the noblest of desires and aspirations of man and offers to suffering humanity what all the philosophies of the world cannot offer.  Christ’s teaching offers joy and peace and comfort of the heart and mind.  The greatest teaching of Christ is love, a word that was totally unknown to the ancients.  Oh love, divine gift, angel with golden wings!  Oh love, divine flame, the flame that Christ ignited in the hearts of people!  Oh love that rises upward and reaches the stars, surpasses them, and touches God to sing hallelujah.  It comes downward to embrace all of God’s creatures, especially man, and creates sacred bonds of family, of brotherhood!  The God-man taught love for God and love for fellow man.  And in that love He enclosed all of the commandments.
Christ taught love.  He taught that we should love God, the Heavenly Father.  He taught that we should love our parents.  He taught that we should love other people like brothers.  He taught that we should love even those who are our enemies and pray for them.
But Christ did more that teach this greatest teaching.  His teaching isn’t the only miracle.  His life is a much greater miracle.  For someone to teach is an easy thing to do.  But to practice what he teaches is far more difficult.  Christ practiced what He taught.  Christ taught that we should love God.  But who loved God the Heavenly Father the way Christ did?  Who ever prayed to God with the fervor Christ prayed to Him?  Christ spent nights without sleep in ardent conversations with His Heavenly Father.  Christ taught that we should love our parents.  And He himself, while nailed to the Cross, did not forget His Holy Mother.  He took care of her.  Christ taught that we should love our enemies.  He himself loved His enemies, even though they hated Him with a passion.
Christ taught that we should forgive our enemies and pray for them.  He prayed for and forgave His own enemies.  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing,”  He was heard saying a few moments before He gave up His spirit to the Heavenly Father.

We must follow Christ’s example.  We must also do what He taught and practiced.  But how can we practice what Christ taught, many of you will ask.  Christ practiced these virtues, but after all He was a man and a God, and as God-man He had the strength to carry our the most difficult commandments and to accomplish the greatest works.  And we are not Gods.  We’re people – people with weaknesses, people with faults and vices, people who want what’s good, people who marvel at what Christ said – how can we do it?  The morality that he taught is impossible to practice.  His teaching isn’t applicable, especially in present times.  So what do we do?

Most of us will ask this.  But what do you say, Oh people?  That Christ’s teaching isn’t feasible, is unrealizable?    But if history presents you with people who also had imperfections and shortcomings but practiced the teaching of Christ, what would you say?  If only one person in the world who practiced Christ’s teaching were found, he would be enough to prove that Christ’s teaching can be practiced.  But there is not just one person who did this.  Many people heard Christ’s words and then did wonderful and marvelous deeds.  And those who saw them marveled  and said that if a religion gives such power to people to overcome weaknesses and passions and to surpass human standards, then this is a religion that is divine in origin, and He Who established it is God.

Do you want to see people who believed in Christ and did everything He taught, beloved?  Open the book of the New Testament that is called the Acts of the Apostles.  Today, on this holy day, this great holy day of Christianity, the Sunday of Easter, we read the beginning of the Gospel according to John, and the Epistle reading is the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles in the Divine Liturgy.  The Bible is the story of the life of Christ.  The Acts, a continuation of the Bible, is the story of the Apostles of Christ and the first Christians.  It contains not only their teachings but also what they did.  The Apostles applied Christ’s teaching.  They loved God, and they loved their neighbor.  For this love they abandoned everything.  Poorly clothed and hungry, they traveled the world, preaching everywhere and performing miracles.  In some instances – don’t be surprised – they performed miracles that were even greater than those of Christ.  They performed them with His power and in this way proved that what He said was true when He said that “not only that which I do you shall do, but even greater things” (John 14:12).

My beloved! We must put Christ’s words, which we hear in Church, into practice and into works in the community in which we live.  We must show our children and future generations that faith is not dead in our times but alive – a faith that shines like the sun, shining with the brilliant teaching of Christ.  It shines even more so with good deeds, with the marvelous works of men and women, of clerics and laity.  Therefore, let us all go forward, beloved, to do good works.  Christian works, like the ones of the first Christians, like the works of the Apostles, like the works of Christ.  “Both to do and to teach.”