10th Sunday after Pentecost (12/25 August)

[Mary Kissel]

Readings for The 10th Sunday after Pentecost (12/25 August)

Matins Gospel:

Code: Select all

[b]Jn. 21:1-14[/b]  After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias; and He manifested Himself thus: There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas who is called Didymos, and Nathanael, the one from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples.  Simon Peter saith to them, "I am going fishing."  They say to him, "We also are coming with thee."  They went forth and embarked into the ship straightway; and during that night they caught nothing.  But it having become already early morning, Jesus stood on the seashore; nevertheless the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.  Then Jesus saith to them, "Little children, ye do not have any fish, do ye?"  They answered Him, "No."  And He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the ship, and ye shall find."  They cast therefore, and were no longer able to draw it because of the multitude of the fish.  Then that disciple whom Jesus loved saith to Peter, "It is the Lord."  Therefore after Simon Peter heard that "it is the Lord," he girded himself with his upper garment (for he was naked), and cast himself into the sea.  But the other disciples came in the small ship (for they were not far from the land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net of fish.  Then when they went up to the land, they saw a fire of coals lying, and a fish lying on it, and bread.  Jesus saith to them, "Bring of the fish which ye now caught."  Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.  Jesus saith to them, "Come and breakfast."  And none of the disciples dared to question Him, "Who art Thou?"--knowing that it was the Lord.  Jesus then cometh and taketh the bread, and giveth to them, and the fish in like manner.  This is now the third time that Jesus was made manifest to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.

Liturgy Epistle and Gospel:

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1Cor. 4:9-16[/b] For  I think that God showed forth us the apostles last, as condemned to death; for we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.  We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ.  We are weak, but ye are strong.  Ye are held in honor, but we are dishonored.  Until the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are being buffeted, and never at rest.  And we toil working with our own hands.  Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear up; being evilly spoken of, we beseech.  We became as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all until now.  I do not write these things shaming you, but admonishing you as my beloved children.  For if ye have myriads of tutors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel.  Therefore, I beseech you, keep on becoming imitators of me.

Mt. 17:14-23 And after they came to the crowd, there came to Him a man, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffereth badly; for he often falleth into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they were not able to cure him." And Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and wayward generation, until when shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out from him; and the boy was cured from that hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why were we not able to cast it out?" And Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief. For verily I say to you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind goeth not out except by prayer and fasting." And while they dwelt in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men; and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised." And they were exceedingly grieved.

[Mary Kissel]

Notes for the 10th Sun after Pentecost (Aug. 12/25)


Matins Gospel notes Jn.21:1-14

Jn 21:2 St Gregory the Great: "We must note that the Lord is described as having had His final banquet with seven disciples. Why did He do this if not to declare that only those filled with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit [Is. 11:2,3] would be with him at His eternal meal?...Paul most truthfully proclaims, 'Now if anyone doth not have the Spirit of Christ, this same one is not of Him [Rom. 8:9].' What he means is that no one, not now governed by the God Who dwells within, shall afterwards rejoice at the sight of the divine glory." [Ib., 185, 186] (ONT, p. 554)

Jn. 21:3 St Gregory the Great: "Jesus, the Truth said, 'No one, having put his hand upon the plow, and looking to the things behind, is fit for the kingdom of God [Lk. 9:62].' Why did Peter return to what he had abandoned? We know that Peter was a fisherman, whereas Matthew was a tax collector. Peter returned to fishing after his conversion, but Matthew did not again sit down to his business of tax collecting, because it is one thing to make a living by fishing, and another to increase one's gains by money from the tax office. There are many occupations we cannot practise either partially or completely without sin. No one is allowed to take up again, after his conversion those occupations that are involved with sin." [Hom. 24, Forty Gospel Homilies, 180; cf Hom. 24, P. L. 76 (col. 1184).] (ONT, p. 554-555)

Jn. 21:4 St Gregory the Great: "'Jesus stood on the seashore.' Before His resurrection He walked on the waves of the sea in His disciples' sight[Mt. 14:25].What does the sea indicate but the present age, which is disturbed by the uproar of circumstances and the commotion of this perishable life? What does the solidity of the shore signifiy but the uniterrupted continuance of eternal peace? Since the disciples were still held in the waves of this mortal life, they were laboring on the sea. But since our Redeemer had already passed beyond His perishable body, after His resurrection He stood on the shore as if He were speaking to His disciples by His actions of the mystery of His resurrection." [Ib.] (ONT, p. 555)

Jn. 21:6 St Gregory the Great: "We read twice in the holy Gospel that the Lord ordered that nets be let down for fishing. In the earlier catch [Lk. 5:4-6], before the Passion, He did not say whether the net be cast on the right side or the left; and so many fish were taken that the nets were torn. In the later catch, after the resurrection, He ordered the net be let down on the right side; and though many fish were taken, the nets were not torn. The good are designated by the right side and the wicked on the left [Mt. 25:33]. The earlier catch signifies the Church in the present time, when she takes along the good with the wicked. She does not choose those she brings in, because she is ignorant of those whom she can choose. The later catch takes place on the right side, since only the Church of the elect, which will possess nothing of the works of the left side, will come to see the glory of His brightness. In the earlier catch the net was broken because the number of the wicked now enters with the elect, and they tear the Church apart with their heresies. In the later catch many large fish are caught, and the net is untorn, because the holy Church of the elect remains in the uninterrupted peace of her Creator and no dissension tears her apart." [Ib., 181, 182.] (ONT. p. 555)

Jn. 21:9 St Gregory the Great: "The One Who wished to be broiled by the turmoil of His Passion in His human nature fed us with the bread of His divinity when He said, 'I am the bread, the living one, that came down out of heaven [Jn. 6:51].' And so He ate broiled fish and bread to show us by this food that He bore His Passion in our human nature, and also provided food for us in His divine nature." [Ib., 184.] (ONT. p. 555-556)

Jn. 21:11a St Gregory the Great: "Because the Church's preacher was to part us from the waves of this world, it was surely necessary that Peter bring the net full of fish to land. He dragged the fish to the firm ground of the shore, because by his preaching He revealed to the faithful the stability of our eternal home. He accomplished this through his words and letters, and he accomplishes it daily by his miraculous signs."[Ib.,182] (ONT. p.556)

Jn. 21:11b St Gregory the Great: "The number has a deep and mysterious meaning. You know that in the Old Testament every work is prescribed by the ten commandments, but in the New Testament the power of the same work is given to the increased number of faithful through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which the prophet fortells: 'The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him, the Spirit of the fear of God [Is. 11:2,3].' A person acquires the ability to work in this Spirit who acknowledges faith in the Trinity. All of our work can be comprised by ten and seven. Let us multiply this seventeen by three, and we have fifty-one. In the Old Testament this number possessed a deep and mysterious meaning. In the fiftieth year the entire people is to rest from work, and is called a jubilee [Lev. 25:10-12]. True rest though consists in unity since what is one cannot be divided. Where there is division and separation there is no true rest. Let us multiply fifty-one bye three, and we have one hundred and fifty-three. Because all our work, practised through belief in the Trinity, tends toward rest. We multiply seventeen by three to arrive at fifty-one, and our true rest exists when even now we recognize the glory of the Trinity, which we hold as certainly existing in the unity of the divinity. And so the net that was let down after the Lord's resurrection was suited to catch a number of fish that would indicate the elect in our celestial home." [Ib., 182, 183.] (ONT. p. 556)

Liturgy Epistle and Gospel notes: 1Cor.4:9-16 & Mt.17:14-23

1Cor.4:11 Blessed Theophylact: "'We are never at rest (never standing still),' that is, we are driven away, we go into exile." [P.G. 124:144C(col. 616).] (ONT. p. 178)

Mt.17:15 Blessed Theophylact: "He is a lunatic". The father calls him 'a lunatic' (some versions 'an epileptic'). The impression of the multitude was that the moon was the cause. The demon, to bring reproach upon the created element of God, attacks when the moon is full, and lets the victim go according to the courses of the moon, as though it were the worker of it. The demon seeks to have the people blaspheme God when they reproach his works." [P.G. 123:90B (col. 332).] (ONT. p. 108)

[Justin Kissel]

Jesus saith to them, "Come and breakfast." - ONT

As opposed to, let's say:

Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." - NKJV

This way of phrasing things in the ONT is the type of thing that makes me shy away from using The Psalter published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery (where, for one example, they translate part of Ps. 151 thus: "My brethren were big and good, yet the Lord took not pleasure in them.") I don't mean this to bash the ONT (which I've recommended on other threads), nor do I wish to say that the NKJV is better. However, the renderings in the ONT do seem rather strange at times. Just bringing it up in case anyone wonders why I don't quote the ONT when I discuss the scripture reading.

[尼古拉前执事]

But to breakfast in not always to eat breakfast. To breakfast is to break the fast by eating.

break·fast
n.
The first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning.

v. break·fast·ed, break·fast·ing, break·fasts
v. intr.
To eat breakfast: We breakfasted on the terrace.

v. tr.
To provide breakfast for.

[Middle English brekfast : breken, to break; see break + faste, a fast (from Old Norse fasta, to fast. See past- in Indo-European Roots).]breakʼfast·er n.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

[Justin Kissel]

Well that's the first time I've ever heard that meaning! (And I double checked my dictionary here at home before posting what I did as well.) Maybe they should have a note in the back explaining that

Justin

[Mary Kissel]

I just wanted to say that when I was doing the endnotes for the Gospel of John last night, I learned something about that Gospel reading that I never knew before, I never really even thought about it before...I figured there was a reason for what was done, but wasn't sure and didn't think to check it out (see what I quoted below) I think that that is very interesting what St Gregory says about what the significance was regarding the first time Christ told His Apostles to cast their net into the water and didnt say any specific side to cast it into, as opposed to this second time when he told them to put it specifically on the right side of the boat.

Jn. 21:6 St Gregory the Great: "We read twice in the holy Gospel that the Lord ordered that nets be let down for fishing. In the earlier catch [Lk. 5:4-6], before the Passion, He did not say whether the net be cast on the right side or the left; and so many fish were taken that the nets were torn. In the later catch, after the resurrection, He ordered the net be let down on the right side; and though many fish were taken, the nets were not torn. The good are designated by the right side and the wicked on the left [Mt. 25:33]. The earlier catch signifies the Church in the present time, when she takes along the good with the wicked. She does not choose those she brings in, because she is ignorant of those whom she can choose. The later catch takes place on the right side, since only the Church of the elect, which will possess nothing of the works of the left side, will come to see the glory of His brightness. In the earlier catch the net was broken because the number of the wicked now enters with the elect, and they tear the Church apart with their heresies. In the later catch many large fish are caught, and the net is untorn, because the holy Church of the elect remains in the uninterrupted peace of her Creator and no dissension tears her apart." [Ib., 181, 182.] (ONT. p. 555)

[Justin Kissel]

If I find anything else during the week, I'll add it in further posts. I really don't think I'll find much more though.

Matt. 17:14-23
Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew: (Homily 57) (Homily 58)

John 21:1-14
Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 87 on John

"After His resurrection Jesus was standing on the shore, His disciples were in the ship. When the others did not know Him, the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.' For virginity is the first to recognize a virgin body. He was the same, yet was not seen alike by all as the same." - Jerome, To Pammachius Against John of Jerusalem

Augustine, Tractates on John: (Tractate 122) (Tractate 123)

1 Cor. 4:9-16
Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on Corinthians: (Homily 12) (Homily 13)