Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost; The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke
Galatians 1:11-19; Colossians 4:5-9, 14, 18; Luke 7:11-16; Luke 10:16-21
Polyeleos Feast
Read Galatians 1:11-19
I remember a number of years back when I was just returning to my faith in a more serious way, I had a disagreement with an unbelieving friend of mine. We were discussing Christ’s Resurrection and how St. Paul refers to this in his letters to the Christian churches. My friend responded that “Paul never met Jesus” as he wasn’t one of the twelve, but simply took their story and ran with it. Of course, St. Paul did not meet Christ during his earthly mission, but he recounts very clearly how he did meet the Risen Lord, and that this encounter was enough to cause him to make a 180-degree turn of his whole life: from persecution to proclamation! At the heart of my friend’s hangup was the unspoken belief that St. Paul’s life had to be explained without the Resurrection (which he assumed impossible), while the experience and witness of St. Paul’s own writings and life show that this encounter with the Risen Christ is what formed him into the man that we have come to know and trust.
Of course, it is easy to understand where my friend was coming from. Someone rising from the dead- impossible! Or even if it were possible, to continue to appear to people and relate to them? And yet we have countless examples of saints throughout the history of the Church whose very lives demonstrate this encounter. The only explanation which makes any sense is exactly what St. Paul tells us today in his letter to the Galatians: this gospel isn’t from men but from God. In other words, we could never have come to this good news under our own power, it had to be shown to us by God Himself. The disciples, despite being warned by the Lord of his Resurrection beforehand did not anticipate it. When He meets them behind the locked doors, that encounter galvanized and organized them into His true followers and apostles. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with the Risen Christ. At its heart is not a “belief system” but an encounter.
How do you relate to the Resurrection? Do you begin your prayers with the expectation of an encounter? When you attend the Divine Liturgy, do you expect that Christ will meet you? This Sunday let us rejoice that the Lord has found us and called us from this world and recommit ourselves to being aware of His constant knock at the door of our soul.