This is what is remarkable about life after Pentecost, this is what is remarkable about the book of Acts: all events take place not simply by human understanding and decision, but because the Holy Spirit has revealed His will. We can only sigh over the fact that for some reason things do not work that way for us. But should we only sigh? Is it not worth looking more closely at why it worked for them?

First, it is written that they worshiped the Lord and fasted. This means that people were seeking God’s will, praying earnestly for it, even fasting so as to pray with greater earnestness. For God this was a sign that His word would be heard with full attention and not allowed to pass by their ears. Do we prepare in such a way for God to be able to say something important to us?

Second, it is said that no word of God is powerless (Luke 1:37). Therefore, if God sees, and He really does see, that we are not going to receive His word in obedience, He will not give it to us. Why cast pearls before swine? The next verse (Acts 13:3) shows that in this case people hastened to fulfill God’s will. If only we were like that too!

How simple everything is, is it not? The Holy Spirit spoke, and everything was clear to everyone. Why, then, are we always overcome by doubts and uncertainty, endless searches for God's will, and inability to hear His voice?

In this connection it is fitting to recall a parable. A certain man came to his spiritual mentor with a question: "Why have I been seeking a meeting with God for so many years, and still it does not happen?" Then the mentor led him into the water and began to drown him. And when the man had almost choked, he pulled him out of the water and asked, "What did you want most of all there, under the water?" The disciple answered, "Air." "Then," said the teacher, "when you desire that meeting as much as air, it will happen."

Do we seek the will of God that strongly? Can we always say, as in this verse, that we "served the Lord and fasted"?

The abolition of the principle of equal retribution, of which the Lord speaks in today's passage from the Sermon on the Mount, marks a fundamentally new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity. In antiquity, in the era when the Law of Moses proclaimed 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' the world was still ruled by the principle of Lamech, who killed a young man for a wound and a man for a scratch. Against that background the rule of equal retribution became the height of civilization and mercy. But the time came when even it ceased to be the highest spiritual achievement: the Lord calls us to renounce vengeance altogether.

Usually interpretation of this call is based on the Old Testament words of God that only He has the right to vengeance and recompense. But the Lord Himself says nothing about this. He does not promise, 'God will avenge you,' but directly commands, 'Renounce revenge; do not resist the evil one.' And this means that in these words we again hear a call to the way of the Cross.