Acts 20:36Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Christ says, “Without Me you can do nothing” good (Jn 15:5). “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). “I am the Light” (Jn 8:12). “Walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you.”

And the holy Orthodox Church, as a child-loving mother, wishing to bless her children for travel, has a special service of supplication for those setting out on a journey.

Orthodox Christians, the fatherly testament of the holy Apostle, proclaimed today by the holy Church not without purpose, also applies to us.

A. Like the Ephesian Christians, we too must attend to ourselves and to the preservation of our holy beliefs.

B. Among us Orthodox also there are not a few wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are ready to plunder and to interpret the Gospel teaching perversely.

C. But each of us, like the Apostle, is obliged to repel such designs and attempts of false teachers, regardless of anything. We must not regard their position in society, their connections with freethinkers, or their kinship.

Nor should we hold even our own life dear, if only we may fulfill our ministry with joy.

D. Each of us must live by his own honest labor and develop his strength. “Let each one labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need” (Eph 4:28).

And “if anyone will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thess 3:10). “Redeem the time” (Eph 5:16), says the holy Apostle.

E. “We beseech you, brethren... to strive earnestly to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands” (1 Thess 4:10-11).

F. The holy Apostle honored the feasts of the Lord. He was concerned not to miss the celebration of Pentecost in Jerusalem. But what of us? How do we spend the feasts?

Do we hasten, for example, to church for the liturgical service? Do we hasten? One man is glad for the feast, drunk before dawn.

Another person returned home late on the eve of the feast after amusements. She had not yet slept enough before the Liturgy was already over.

Another must fully prepare either to receive guests or to go visiting. Is there any thought of church then?

For one person it is too hot in church, or too stuffy, or too cold and damp. The weather is also poor, though he will go visiting in the evening.

Others have the household on their shoulders, so there is no time for church on a feast day. Thus the Christian’s life goes on from day to day, from week to week.

For this reason a church that has many thousands of parishioners around it scarcely sees hundreds within it. Sometimes it is almost empty.

G. The holy Apostle Paul hastened from distant places to Jerusalem so as not to miss the memorable and greatly honored feast of Pentecost.

Among us too there are good Christian men and women. Being more or less free from family ties or civic duties, they undertake and piously complete distant religious journeys to holy places.

They go, for example, to Solovki, that is, to the White Sea, to the Solovetsky Monastery, to Kiev, to Athos, to Old Jerusalem, and the like.

Yet we will not conceal that there is much condemnation and reproach directed against such journeys.

It is said that among pilgrims there are many idlers who make their living under cover of Christ’s name alone. Such male and female pilgrims return to their homeland no better than they were, and sometimes worse.

After such a journey, for example to Old Jerusalem, they consider themselves exceptional people. They often wish to present every observation of theirs, and every word caught on the wind, as truth binding on everyone without exception.

Sometimes these people bring back little stones, supposedly from the Jordan, berries under the name “tears of the Theotokos,” herbs, and small reeds.

They not only give these away as though they possessed some special power, but also sell them for great profit to themselves.

It is hard to say anything against this objection. It is taken from life. It is very sad, and painful for the name Orthodox, when one sees such pilgrims.

But, on the other hand, one cannot say this about all pilgrims. Some regard a journey to the holy places as a sacred work, saving for the soul.

It is joined with the hardships of the road and with poor means of sustenance. They consider it a work that effaces sins committed.

And some return from a religious journey as better Christians. This is especially so if they had the good fortune to speak with some lofty ascetic, and even to confess their soul to the Lord before him.

Therefore do not judge, and do not hasten to pronounce sentence on pilgrimages and pilgrims in general. Another person’s soul is dark to us.

Besides this, travel in general develops a person. People say that God hears prayer equally, whether in Petersburg or in Jerusalem, whether on Zion or on the Valdai Hills.

This is true. God is everywhere, and He sees, hears, and knows all things. But it is one thing to pray, for example, in Petersburg, without special self-sacrifices.

It is another thing for a Petersburger to lift up prayer in Old Jerusalem, which is not so easy to reach.

Travel requires great patience, condescension, and compassion toward others. Moreover, they say that the soul of a European praying in Jerusalem at the tomb of the Lord experiences feelings it did not have while praying at home.

And this is no wonder. The stirrings and sensations are different, powerful, holy, and heavenly. The prayer of faith is stronger.

There is the tomb of Christ. Here is the place of the crucifixion of our Savior and of the Mystical Supper. Farther on is the place of Pilate’s judgment.

There is also the site of the Temple of Jerusalem. Everything in this holy city reminds the soul of the boundless mercies of God, and of the priceless sacrifice for our sins.

Christian peoples, unchanged from age to age, have regarded it as a holy work and a need of the heart to visit the holy city and kiss the ground where the feet of Jesus stood.

Whose heart will not tremble when it remembers what Christ endured for us because of our defilements, our sins? Whose soul will not be moved to compunction by gratitude toward the Savior?

But, brethren, visiting the holy city of Jerusalem is not obligatory for each of us. Yet we are urgently obliged to strive and continually walk piously, without turning back, toward Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22).

Let us constantly conduct ourselves as though we were on the road to that city. Let us constantly remember that “here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Heb 13:14).

May the guardian angel be our companion in this pilgrimage to Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and without Him one cannot come to the mansions of the heavenly Father.

May the Lord bless you to strive toward the heavenly Jerusalem with the same joy with which the holy Apostle Paul, knowing the sorrows that awaited him, hastened to the earthly Jerusalem, and then to heaven, to Christ (Phil 1:23).

He also saw that after his departure "grievous wolves" would enter among them, and men speaking perverse things would arise, "to draw away disciples after themselves" (Acts 20:29-30). Therefore his apostolic heart was filled with deepest compunction. For this reason, bending his knees with all those present, he poured out his prayer before the all-good God for their strengthening and salvation.

But all the persuasions and entreaties of those who begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem were in vain. In Tyre, some began, by the Spirit's prompting, to dissuade him from it (21:4). In Caesarea, Paul's companions added their voice to the entreaties of the Church. Yet all was in vain. Paul said, "I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Meanwhile, one brief feature in Agabus's prediction somewhat clarified the future. He said that the Jews would bind this man, but would not kill him. They would deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles, that is, the Romans. This was precisely what Paul needed.

Upon Him the whole building, joined together harmoniously, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. He prayed that they might be built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (cf. Eph. 2:20-21). He prayed that they all might be good shepherds for the salvation of many, and heirs of eternal life in the heavenly mansions. And Paul's disciples, that is, the assembled bishops and presbyters, naturally prayed that God would preserve their beloved teacher. They prayed that his spirit would always be with them, and that his desires might be fulfilled in them, to the glory of God and the salvation of many. Let us also pray to the Lord God that He Himself, by the power of His grace, grant us to fight the good fight in the field of ministry entrusted to us by Him. May we always remain faithful to Him and finish the course of this present life with the hope of receiving the crown of blessed life.