Fifth Saturday of the Great Fast: Akathist Saturday.
Holy Martyrs Sabinus and Papas (284-305)
Great Fast Day 34. Hebrews 9:24-28. Hebrews 9:1-7. Mark 8:27-31. Luke 10:38-42. 11:27-28.
Read Mark 8:27-31
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
When I was serving as a spiritual director of the Ukrainian Catholic University, I invited a very prominent and educated priest to preside and to preach during one of our solemn Divine Liturgies at the end of the school year. He started his homily with an assertion which no one could ever expect. He literally said: “I do not believe in God!” It certainly drew everyone’s attention and in a way shocked most of the people attending the Liturgy. Yet, he went on: “I no longer believe in God, because now I feel God’s presence in every event of my life. There is no longer need in believing, since I had so many experiences of His assistance that I no longer need any proof for His existence, and I am no longer questioning His loving guidance.”
Similar dynamic is present in today’s dialogue of Jesus with his disciples. It was no wonder that they knew what other people thought or said about Him. Jesus did not seem to care too much about other people’s opinions. What he was genuinely interested in was what His closest disciples think of Him. What is more, it was not even the question about their knowledge about Him, but the question of their knowledge of Him. “Who am I for you?”
We may be very advanced in the level of our theological education, we might have read many books about Jesus, yet, the question remains: “Who is Jesus for me?” The fact that I know a lot about Him does not necessarily mean that I know Him. We may read every article about Israel, but it can not replace the actual pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We may know every detail about the life of a famous person, but it would be so much different if we would have a chance to actually encounter that person.
The good news is that in order to know Jesus we do not have to travel to another country or to regret that He lived in another century, for He is alive and present in our midst. To be a true theologian does not mean that we need to go through many years of studies, but we can simply develop our relationships with God. According to St. Evagrius: “The true theologian is the one who is praying.” Without acknowledging that Jesus is the true Messiah and the Son of the living God, and without authentic bondage with Him we would not be able to call ourselves Christians. After all, our religion (lat. religare) is precisely about connection and about relationships. It is not about knowing about Him, but about knowing Him as He is.