Whom say the people that I am?

[Col. 2:13-20; Luke 9:18-22] Whom say the people that I am? the Lord asked. In answer to this the A­ postles related the current opinions among the people concerning Him, formed according to the nature of people’s views at that time. Some said that He was John the Baptist, others that He was Elias, others that he was one of the ancient prophets resurrected. How do they answer today? Also in various ways, each according to his own way of think­ ing. What sort of answers could be given by materialists, atheists, and the soulless who believe we are de­ scended from the apes, when they have neither God nor a soul?Spirit­ ualists, like the Arians, have the same response that was denounced at the first ecumenical council. De­ ists see God as being very far from the world, and since they do cannot contain in their system the mystery of the incarnation, they answer like the Ebionites,[1] Socinians[2]. You will hear similar answers in Rus­ sian society, for the aforesaid three types of identities exist and are multiplying among us. But thanks to the Lord, we still have a boundlessly predominating number of sincere believers and those who strictly maintain the apostolic confession that the Lord Jesus Christ is the on­ ly-begotten Son of God incarnate, the Saviour and Redeemer of the human race who even in paradise was promised to our forefathers. Which party will overcome is known only to God. Let us pray that we preserve within us the light of Christ, and that darkness of false teachings be driven away. We have a weakness for bad things; that is why it is not surprising that a lie comes out on top. Now it is already walking the streets of town openly, while in the past it cautiously hid from the gaze of Christian believers.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

[1] An early Judaizing, heretical sect of Jewish Christians originating in Palestine, who did not believe in the virginal birth of Christ, or that He is the Son of God. [2] An antitrinitarian Protestant sect begun by Lelio Sozzini (1525-62) and his nephew Fausto Sozzini.