Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. [Acts 6:1–7; Mark 15:43–16:8]

   The tireless women! They would not give sleep to their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids (cf. Ps. 132) until they found their Beloved! But the men as if dragged their feet: they went to the tomb, saw it empty, and remained in confusion about what it could mean because they did not see Him. But does this mean that they had less love than the women? No, here was a reasoning love which feared making a mistake due to the high price of this love and its object. When they too saw and touched Him, then each of them, not with his tongue, like Thomas, but with his heart confessed: my Lord and my God (John 20:28), and already nothing could separate them from the Lord. The myrrh-bearers and the Apostles are an image of the two sides of our life: feeling and reasoning. Without feeling life is not life; without reasoning life is blind, offers little sound fruit and much is wasted. We must combine both. Let feeling go forward and arouse; let reason determine the time, place, method and generally the practical arrangement of what the heart suggests for us to do. Within, the heart comes first, but in practical application, reason comes first. When the feelings become educated in discerning good and evil, then perhaps it will be possible to rely on the heart alone. Just as shoots, flowers and fruits grow naturally from a living tree, so does goodness alone emerge from the heart, rationally mingling into the course our life.

Wednesday. [Gal. 3:15-22; Mark 6:7-13]

   When the Lord sent the holy apostles to preach, He commanded that they not take anything with them but the clothes on their backs, sandals on their feet, and staff in hand. They were to have no cares about anything, entering in to this work as if everything were fully provided. Indeed, the apostles were completely provided for, without any external provisions. How was this arranged? Through their complete devotion to the will of God; that is why the Lord arranged for them not to have any need for anything. Their preaching moved the hearts of listeners, who fed and sheltered the preachers. But the apostles did not think of this and did not expect anything, committing all to the Lord. That is why they bore any unpleasantness they might have encountered patiently. Their only care was to preach, and their only sorrow was if people would not listen to their preaching. From this came the purity, independence and great fruitfulness of their preaching. The same is needed today as well, but our infirmity demands external provision, without which we will not take a step. This, however, is not a reproach against our apostles of today. In the beginning they definitely find comfort in being provided for, but then the thought of it disappears from their mind, and through their very labour they are raised up to the state of committing themselves to God. Very likely from that moment their preaching begins to be truly fruitful. Committing oneself to God is a very high degree of moral perfection, and people do not reach it immediately the moment they understand its value. It comes on its own after labors over oneself.