Our Venerable Father Bessarion the Wonderworker (457-74); Venerable Hilarion the New (845-46)
Romans 1:7-12; Matthew 5:42-48
No fasting or abstention from foods
Read Romans 1:7-12
Today’s epistle gives us the concluding part of the Holy Apostle Paul’s salutation to the Church in Rome followed by a wonderful short expression of St. Paul’s desire to be united with his fellow Christians there. The Holy Apostle points us to three important and interconnected realities: 1) that our faith is to be proclaimed (v. 8), 2) that we desire community and friendship with our fellow Christians (v. 11), and 3) that Christian friendship is a source of encouragement and spiritual strength (v.12).
A wise priest once said to me that we must remember that the people who come into our lives, whether for short periods or long, are there for our salvation. Indeed, we must strive to live a godly life hopeful in the promise of salvation and in so doing prepare to give account for that life before God upon our death. But we are not and cannot be Christians alone. We are saved through the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, in which we work out our salvation along with our brothers and sisters in Christ living our sacramental and liturgical lives as disciples. Whether we are physically together at liturgies or not we are always in and with the Church. This points us to the importance of Christian friendship. The blessing of deep and abiding Christian friends is that we are able to journey along with them together on the path of salvation. Christian friendship is something to be sought and then cultivated. When we are drawn together with another Christian, we encounter Our Lord Jesus Christ in a particular way. Friends who share our faith in Christ and with whom we can grow in that faith are a true gift from God. The growth in Christian love between friends reveals yet again Christ’s love for us. Let us earnestly pray to God that He sends us in this life wonderful friends with whom we may journey along the path to becoming saints.