The First Sunday of the Blessed Month of Hathor

The Sunday Readings speak about the Logos; the giver of life (the Word of life): our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory: –  

The Psalms declare that the initiative should proceed from God to us. For we cannot understand Him; but it is He who reveals Himself to us (Vesper Psalm), provided that He has tested the effect of His revelation on us through our thirst to Him (Morning one); so our life will flow with joy and praises (that of the Liturgy). 

Through the Vesper Psalm we know that the creation’s knowledge of the Son, the Logos begins with His being revealed to us and with causing His face to shine upon us. For the human beings will never know the way of their salvation unless His loving-kindness and mercy are to be shown to them: 

“God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us… That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” 

Yet this will never be achieved without a diligent human endeavor: just as shown in the Morning Psalm: “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.” 

Therefore the fruits of knowing Him come forth: blessing, praising, boasting in Him, and bringing the others forward to Him – just as shown through the Liturgy Psalm: 

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.” 

Then come the Liturgy Readings to talk about the honesty and faithfulness of the ministers of the word (Pauline Epistle), the effectiveness of the word in our lives (Catholic Epistle), and its justification for Man (Praxis). 

So the Pauline Epistle expounds the importance of being honest in the word which we preach and of the purity of our serving it, and also the Importance of serving in the spirit of the word, not by its letter: 

“When I came to Troas to preach Christ… For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved among those who are perishing… For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God… You are our epistle… written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God… Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 

Then through the Catholicon Saint Peter shows the preciousness of God’s living word which gave us the new birth, its effective constancy being as a mental pure milk, its glory which differs from that of the world which is to pass away, and its power to build up souls so as to become living stones: 

“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.’… As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood”. 

Therefore the Praxis illustrates the justification of the word of life for the New Testament Man, and the annunciation of joy: the forgiveness of sins; which the Law was unable to give. Such is the essence of the calling of the word: 

“That… is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses… So when [the Jews] went out [of the synagogue, the Gentiles] begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath… many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” 

Now the Vesper Gospel shows the riches of the crowds and of the church, those who follow His word: that by the end of three days when the crowds had stayed with the Son of God to hear the word of life, came blessing, riches and satisfaction, just with the simplest things and abilities: with the word of blessing by which He prayed God the Father: through which also He poured His divine riches upon the multitudes and filled them; thus revealing that such is the responsibility of the church along all generations: 

“’You give them something to eat.’” 

That is why the church seeks the word of life and His divine presence; that He may continually be the mystery of the riches of her children: 

“’We have here only five loaves and two fish.’… and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled”. 

As for the Liturgy Gospel, it shows that the word of life is the field of our preaching, and the source of the healing of our spirits (the forgiveness of sins) and of our bodies (healing of diseases); thus proving our spiritual healing and the forgiveness of our sins through the soundness of the body: 

“Immediately many gathered together… And He preached the word to them… ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’… ‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’-He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’… and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed”. 

How wonderful is the Lord to forgive the sins of the paralytic because of the four men’s faith, while they did not ask for such a matter, nor did the paralytic himself! This gives hope to whoever is concerned with others that they may be saved and have forgiveness of their sins. So if we cry for the sake of the others that their sins may be forgiven, absolutely the Lord will answer. But we need to consider that this happened but “when He so their faith”. 

[The verse, “‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’” may be so expounded: there is a nice commentary that says, the Rabbis have known that Man could never be healed of any of the diseases unless his sins had first been wholly forgiven. Then the Lord Christ, having healed the paralytic, evidenced that He had really forgiven his sins, as He said.] (Reverend Father Antonius Fekri – Commentary on Matthew, chapter 9).