Glory to Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters!
I congratulate you with the feast of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul, with the Holy Communion, with the consecration of our souls and bodies.
One of the heroes of today’s feast Apostle Paul appeals to us through the Bible (Romans ХІІ:6-14) with such words: “Brothers! Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
And we, dear brothers and sisters, have a chance to think over: “What gifts do we have?” Every person can ask this question to himself: “Oh God, what kind of gift did You give to me? How do You want me to serve You or people? What positive things should I do in this world? How can I do good that my life wasn’t useless, that it could be full with God’s grace, God’s gifts for serving? How can I serve people and You?”
And there is one more question. Do we ask it every day? Did we ever ask such question: “What should I do? What kind of gifts the Lord gave me for my salvation that my time on the Earth wasn’t useless? ” And we can’t always get the answers to these questions. But we can ask God to get His Holy Gifts.
But here is one more question: “What kind of gifts do we need?” We don’t know what exact gifts we need. We don’t exactly know, but feel our mission, even if God doesn’t open it to us. That is why we don’t understand what should we do? What should we ask? Would He give something to us? But we all know that the Lord said: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” And He added: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
Do you understand? God will give us His gifts. But what gifts? He perfectly knows what kind of gifts we need. It can be the gift of prophecy. Or the gift of consolation to console other people, or the gift of strong prayer – to pray for others, for this world. We don’t know. We have to ask: “Oh God, bless me with Your gifts – that gifts, which I need for my salvation. Bless me with the gifts, that You could make this world better through me. That I could be Your tool in Your hands.”
God knows what we need. And our task is to feel God’s power, God’s love, God’s grace and do good, do not sit and do nothing. Because the world was made in such way, God made it. If God does good through us to other people, He blesses us and then other people do good to us. It is not always good, sometimes can be bad things. But we don’t have to pay attention to that. Why? Because Apostle Paul said: “Bless who persecute you those (in the other words your enemies); bless and do not curse them.”
How can we understand that? You must pray for them that they do not persecute you. Pray in such way: “Oh Lord, fill us up with love and forgiveness to our enemies and give them love and forgiveness to us.” Pray for your persecutors, that evil power, which goes from them to you could be neutralized. But God can give you some trials. You can ask: “Why?” In order you to grow spiritually, to use God’s Gifts, which the Lord gives us. One of God’s gifts could be patience. It is a great God’s Gift. Through patience we have wisdom to comprehend God’s wisdom.
But the greatest gift, which the Lord can bless us all and He gives it to us, is God’s Love. When we come to the Temple and ask God to fill us with His Holy Gifts, when receive the Communion we are filled with this grace - God’s Love. We feel good, we want that this God’s Love, which the Lord filled us with through the Holy Spirit, lasts forever.
And it can last forever only in the Kingdom of God. And we can have the Kingdom of God here on the Earth. We can build it in our own heart, but not in the other countries, other cities or other families.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
