May 24, 2019

Our Venerable Father Simeon of the Mountain of Wonders (596)

Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.

Read
Acts 15:5-34; John 10:17-28

Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!

We continue to hear in the readings from the Gospel of John Our Lord Jesus Christ describe His relationship to the Father. Here today He states plainly that those who follow Him are those who recognize Him as coming from the Father. This recognition comes from seeing the works Our Lord performs. In these weeks of Pascha, we encounter some of these mighty works that reveal Jesus to be who He says He is: the Son of God. We see this truth of our faith revealed in His healing of the paralytic and the man born blind. We see it in the spiritual healing He offers the Samaritan woman. They acclaim Him and tell all those around them about these miracles and this man who has wrought them.

How often do we recognize the amazing work that God is doing in our lives? Do we acclaim Him for the work opportunities He gives us? Do we give thanks for the families He has given us? Do we praise Him for the gift of faith? Are we conscious of how He is constantly working in our lives? Do we rejoice in how He reveals Himself to us in those we love, those in whom we glimpse His image and likeness? These, too, are wonderful works of Our Lord. They may not be great physical healings, but these wonderful works should provoke the same response in us as it did among the figures of John’s gospel: acclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord, our Saviour, who reveals the Father to us. Let us truly follow Him as His sheep who heed His voice. Let us tell all the world of Him and proclaim His Glorious Resurrection to all people at all times in our words, in our actions, and above all through our love.

as