The Gospel Readings of the Pentecost
Better late than never! I’ve been meaning, since before Pascha, to start writing and recording commentaries on the pericopes from St. John’s Gospel that we read during the 50 Days of the Pentecost from Pascha through Pentecost Sunday, but the post-Holy Week psychosomatic crash emptied my mind of all useful energy for any but the most mundane activities. With God’s help, and through the prayers of the great Evangelist, we’ll begin in medias res…tomorrow!
I have penned a short introduction to the series, which you’ll find below, along with an audio recording of the same. First, however, I invite you to listen to this sermon that I preached this Sunday past, on the subject of St. John the Theologian: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/8-may-os-2024-st-john-the-theologian–60137788
The Son of Thunder
The Gospel Readings of the Pentecost
This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. – John 21:24
Introduction –
There is an old saying, “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, during His life on earth, chose John the son of Zebedee to be His most intimate friend. John, thus, may show us the Lord and honestly say, “I show you my Friend.” We may then conclude that John, in his life and in his writings, reveals to us who Christ is.
Great Lent was the springtime season to harrow the overgrown field of the soul, pulling out the weeds and stones of our passions and sins. It was not the season of planting, not yet – it was the season of preparing the ground for the seed. The Old Testament readings of Lent were not the full revelation of Who God Is – They pointed the way, prefigured, predicted, gave hints; they were looking forward to That, or rather, Him, Which was to come.
Having worked so hard to prepare the ground of our souls, what a shame it would be if we did not plant the life-bearing seed, the Word of God, in the ground that has been prepared. And what marvelous seed the loving Church now graciously gives us: The ineffably sublime deeds and words of the Savior as recorded by His friend, the Son of Thunder, John the Theologian.
When spiritual torpor overtakes us, when our minds are lulled into the madness of a waking nightmare by the siren song of this world, when we are tempted to descend from our Lenten heights to wallow senselessly in the mire of temporal concerns instead of ascending to the yet greater heights of Paschal illumination: let us force open the Books of Thunder – the Gospel according to John, his Epistles, and the Apocalypse – and they will slay the Hades in our hearts by the lightning of the divinity of the One Whom they proclaim.
If these little commentaries motivate you, dear Reader, to imbibe the noetic nectar and heavenly ambrosia of Divine John to any degree, then remember in your prayers this sinner,
Steven, Priest
Pascha, 2024
Listen to an audio podcast of this introduction here: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-son-of-thunder–6185218
