Proclaiming Christ to Those in Search of the Unknown God How We Can Encounter Christ by Archbishop Michael Summer 2016
In our technologically driven age of Facebook, e-mails and texting, it is very easy to lose sight of the Living Presence of our Risen Lord and Savior in our personal, everyday lives. It is difficult enough to communicate with others on a personal level; so many young people are “friends” with individuals they have never even met! How much more do we need to encounter the friendship of the Incarnate Son of God! Yet our Holy Orthodox Church provides us with three incredible opportunities to meet Jesus Christ in our everyday lives. First, we can encounter Him in His word – in the pages of the Holy Gospel – together with the other expressions of the Tradition of our Faith, which is “the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church.” Second, we can meet the Risen Lord in the Holy Mysteries, especially the Sacraments of Confession, Unction, and Holy Communion. And finally, we can encounter Christ in our loving service to those in need – “the least of the brethren.” Obeying His Word The word that God speaks to us in Christ is not simply another word among many, but His eternal Word. So how do we come to meet, and know, and be affected by the Word of God? The story of the call of Simon the fisherman can help us in this instance; for in this account (Luke 5:1-11), Peter encounters Jesus in His word. Saint Luke records the crowd pressing all around Christ, listening to His preaching. Our Lord gets into Peter’s fishing boat and has him pull a short way from the shore. Then, after He finishes teaching the crowds, Jesus says to Peter, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Now, the disciples had been fishing all night without catching a thing – because they had been too close to shore. Peter must have been exhausted from a full night of fruitless effort. Still, he decided to obey Christ’s word, to take a chance and put out into the deep, despite his fatigue and the jeers of his friends – and the result was the largest catch of all.
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“Put out into the deep”: Too many of us skim the surface of life, hugging the shore. If we really want to live, we must launch out into the deep. God’s kingdom is not to be reached by living on the surface. God is in the depths. To reach Him
we must break through the surface and penetrate the deep things of ourselves, of our world, and of God. We must ask the deep questions: What is the meaning of my life? Where did I come from? Where am I going? In this account of Luke, Jesus was forming Peter to be an apostle, an evangelist, a leader of the Church. He was helping Peter realize that obeying the word of God can lead to surprising successes. They caught so great a haul of fish that their nets were about to break! But most important, this dramatic encounter changed Peter – he repented of his sins, and followed Christ. The fisherman became a “fisher of men”! It must also be so with us. We must obey the Word of God and be willing to take risks. This formula worked not only for St. Peter in this case, but also in the account of the storm, when Jesus came to the apostles, walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33). Bidden by the Lord to walk on the water as well, Peter obeyed Christ’s word, and took the risk. As long as Peter focused on Jesus and His word, he was able to walk on the sea; but once he took his eyes off the Lord, and listened instead to the howling of the wind and the churning of the waters, then Peter began to sink. Obeying the Word and taking risks also worked for the centurion whose servant was gravely ill (Matthew 8:5-13). Jesus offered to come and heal him. But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” He knew the power of Christ’s word; because of his belief, without Jesus coming to his home, his servant was healed in that very hour. And, of course, we can cite the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-44). Although Lazarus was already dead for four days, buried in a tomb, and decaying … against these odds … at Christ’s word, “Take away the stone,” they removed the boulder from the cave. And again, at Jesus’ words, “Lazarus, come forth!”, he who had died came out, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and
