Father Gavril Galev: Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life!
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15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,
17 got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.
18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.
19 And when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.
20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat arrived at the place where they were going.
22 On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had set off alone.
23 However, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks.
24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
27 Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I would like to say a word or two about today’s Gospel Reading, because just as it is necessary to distinguish day from night, so it is necessary to distinguish between truth and lie.
In today’s Gospel, the Lord clearly tells us what we should live for, what we should truly strive for, what is our true goal and our true realization. And that is the Son of Man as the goal and measure of all values and eternal life which is the communion with Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, and is acquired here and now. And everything that is from this world we should despise, we should disregard, and even if it is possible to eradicate. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and also the worldly desire and lust; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2: 16,17).
For this reason, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as soon as He perceived that the people wanted to make Him an earthly king, fled into the mountain by Himself alone. Making it known that He has nothing to do with the world and did not come for the temporary earthly kingdom, but for the Heavenly, the eternal Kingdom.
From an ascetic-hesychastic point of view, everything that is in the world only leads astray and alienates man from God. That is why the God-Man Jesus Christ shows us the way, He escapes from the worldly fame, from the worldly congestion, from the worldly noise and He departs alone to a hesychastic asceticism in the mountain of the sublime contemplation.
The world is just a lie, deception, hypocrisy, unjust competition, and spiritual detriment. In the world, they will lie to you, compliment you and praise you, and it is all to our detriment. In order for us to think highly of ourselves and delude ourselves, and thus lose Christ. And again we, being conceited, enjoy and aspire to hear all of that. But that is what kills the spirit in us, that is what kills repentance, blinds our spiritual eye, and obscures our path to the Kingdom, to the Truth, to God.
That is why we should try with all our strength to avoid those worldly crowds and to run from them. This is especially important for those people who have separated themselves from the world and live as monks. Monasticism is nothing but the realization that everything in the world is vanity, lies, deception and that everything comes to an end one day with death. For these people, the monks, have decided for that day to come a little earlier, to die for the world here and now, and they separate themselves from the world and live a monastic, solitary life in obedience and prayer. However, when living his life in this manner, he should be truly separated from the world, I am talking here above all spiritually, with our thoughts, with our words, with our desires, with our deeds. Let us flee like Christ did, when He escaped from the noise and men’s vanity. By going away in the ark (boat), which is the Church, and which immediately reached the other side, and that is eternal life. Only in the Church can we be saved from all these tribulations, from all these temptations and lies, and reach the shore safely, that is, reach the goal. And only the Church is the place of true salvation.
The people who truly seek God and His kingdom, when they realise that Christ is not among them (in the world) feeling the emptiness, seek Him, look for Him and do everything to find Him, to acquire Him and to have Him. This event happened immediately after the event of the feeding of 5000 people with the 5 loaves and therefore the Lord tells them that they are not looking for Him because of the miracle, i.e. because of external, secondary reasons, but because of essential reasons, because they ate of the loaves, because the food that He gives is the grace. It is He Himself through His energies, and in the holy communion of the holy Eucharist.
And for that reason those people, to be precise the monks who left the world and followed Christ, once they feel and receive Him in their heart (through the gracious action of the Holy Spirit), should leave everything and follow Him and seek only Christ (because He is gentle and good) and only in communion with His grace are we actually in the safe place (in the ark).
That is why the Lord teaches us not to labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, and which will be given to you only by the Son of Man, the God-Man Jesus Christ, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.
Father Gavril Galev
Abbot of the monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
07/05/2021
