Notes for  9 July 2026

What does it mean to "seek good, and not evil"? At first it looks clear: try to do good deeds, not evil ones. But do we not act that way? Is there anything we do not do from good motives? "We," not "they" - right now we are evaluating not others, but ourselves! And yet our deeds turn out to be evil too often - perhaps because through these actions we react to the evil around us and try to punish it or uproot it.

Let us try truly to seek good and not evil. Without closing our eyes to the existence of evil in the world, in people, and in ourselves, let us still try first of all to see the good, even tiny grains of it. Then we may not want to answer evil with evil at once, but may want to try to change and improve relationships, to multiply the good - and then God, of whom it is said that He is love, will truly be with us.

Today the focus of our attention is our own answer to Christ's question: "But who do you say that I am?" Humanly speaking, we can imagine the matter this way: you reflected on life and finally reasoned your way to the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. But He Himself says that it does not happen like this. Not flesh and blood, that is, not human nature and its capacities, revealed this to Peter, but Jesus' Father, who is in heaven. Therefore this faith is a gift of God, and, like every gift of His, it too must be asked for. It is absurd to sit and wait until the Almighty remembers you - He has never forgotten His creation. One must want Him to reveal the truth about Himself to you, and ask for this.

Enormous courage is required of Peter to utter these words. As long as one can treat Jesus as one of the prophets, a great spiritual or moral teacher, everything is simple and convenient for a person. But when you have accepted and confessed that He is the Son of God, your relations with the surrounding world and your whole life change. What we call human maturity is, in essence, the ability to say to God: "You are my Lord, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," and to draw practical conclusions from this. Then you become part of the Church - His people, whom the gates of hell will not overcome.

In addition, today's Gospel reading is one of the foundations of ecclesiology - the Church's teaching about herself. A brief account of this can be found in A. Lakirev's article "The Properties of the Church: Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity".

The apostles, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, come also into our house and say, "Peace to this house!" But for God's peace to remain in our house - in our heart, in the family, in the community - it is very important to prove worthy of this good news. But how can we do this if, according to the apostle Paul, the sin living in us does not let us fulfill God's commandments?

The apostle gives us a clear answer to this: the law of sin is overcome only by the law of the Spirit, by new life in Christ; only with His gracious help can we change and worthily receive the blessing of the Lord Jesus.

The Gospel according to Luke does not begin as the other Gospels do. Usually the Gospel narrative opens with events connected in one way or another with Jesus Himself; Luke, however, prefaces his account with the story of the miraculous conception of John the Baptist. Of course, John the Baptist will play his own, extremely important and entirely unique, role in the Gospel events. And yet none of the evangelists gives him as much attention as Luke. Usually the Gospels describe John already as a preacher, appearing as if from nowhere, as if he had been born in the very wilderness where his preaching sounded. Luke, as we can see, wants to set this mysterious figure within the real history of which John's activity was a part. But he by no means denies the miracle in what is happening: John's conception and birth were undoubtedly connected with God's direct intervention in the events taking place in Jerusalem, in the family of the priest named Zechariah (vv. 5-20).

Here before us is a situation described more than once in the Old Testament: a child is born to a childless married couple when, in the natural way, it is completely clear that he can no longer come into the world. It is no surprise that the birth of such a child was perceived as a miracle, as the direct action of God, who in this case makes real an event that is, if not directly impossible, then at least nearly incredible. And of course, like every miracle of God, the miracle of John's birth remains for us in many ways a mystery - the same as, for example, the mystery of Isaac's birth. But this mystery has nothing in common with the aura of obscurity with which popular rumor surrounded the figure of John when he went out to preach.

Perhaps Luke begins his Gospel with the account of John's miraculous birth precisely because by the time he wrote it too many legends had already appeared both about John and, perhaps, even about Jesus Himself (vv. 1-4). Later these legends, born of a stormy Eastern imagination, became the basis of apocryphal literature, where the image of Christ often acquired completely fantastic features and miracles took on chimerical forms. Luke lets us feel the breath of a true miracle, for which there is always room in the world - a miracle that is near and at the same time does not cease to be mystery. Like the Kingdom itself.

Today's reading helps us see more clearly the influence that religiosity has on a person's soul and consciousness. The account begins with mention of the feast of Sukkot ("the Feast of Booths"), to which Jesus' brothers are going to go in Jerusalem (vv. 2-3). Sukkot was one of the four main feasts of the Jewish religious year, and as usual a great gathering of pilgrims was expected in Jerusalem. It is no surprise that Jesus' brothers, who did not believe in His messiahship, wanted Him during the feast to proclaim Himself publicly as the Messiah and to give the proofs that those around Him had already demanded of Him more than once (vv. 3-5). Evidently, they expected to see the Messiah as the majority of believing Jews of the Gospel period imagined Him - as a Messiah-king, proclaiming an independent Jewish state and driving out the Romans. It is no surprise that Jesus refuses such a demonstration (vv. 6-8); He does come to Jerusalem, but secretly, trying not to draw attention to Himself (vv. 9-10).

Meanwhile, in the city, very different rumors about Him are circulating: some consider Him a man of God, others a deceiver (vv. 11-12). But everyone looks anxiously over his shoulder at those whom the evangelist calls "the Jews," meaning, as we can see, the spiritual leaders of the Synagogue and of the Pharisaic movement (v. 13). At that time Jesus again speaks to the people gathered in the temple court about the main thing - about His mission (vv. 14-18). And also about the true meaning of the Sabbath, whose meaning had long been lost behind numerous ritual prescriptions (vv. 19-24). Then some of those present recognize in the Speaker the One who had already been accused of breaking the Sabbath law, a violation punishable by death. And perhaps He is right? After all, no one appears to be intending to apply any sanctions to Him. But He cannot be the Messiah, for the Messiah must appear in some completely different way (vv. 25-27).

Here before us, as if on the palm of a hand, are all the questions that religion produces in the consciousness of a person who finds himself face to face with Christ and with the Kingdom that He brought into the world. No one has ever done such miracles as He has, and, perhaps, no one ever will (v. 31), but... why did He come not as religious tradition says of Him? And why do the religious leaders not receive Him? Where is the truth - in the religion that rejects Him, or in that evident reality of the Kingdom which bears such bright witness to Him? Each person answered this question for himself, and on this answer depended the acceptance or rejection of the Savior and of the Kingdom He brought into the world.

Addressing the new generation of Israelites with an account of the forty-year wandering from Egypt to the land of Canaan, Moses recalls the reason for such long wanderings - the murmuring of the scouts - and calls the children not to repeat the errors of their fathers. We all must learn something from other people, but from certain things, and even from certain people, we must turn aside. In learning from someone, we tend to take on both the bad and the good - therefore we so need the gift of God's wisdom in order to orient ourselves rightly in our life.