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Your Eminence Metropolitan Arsenios, dear Brother in Christ,

Your Excellency Archabbot Cirill,

Beloved Children in the Lord,

We are deeply moved to stand together in prayer and supplication with the pious and faithful children of the Mother Church of Constantinople, who comprise our Exarchate in Hungary. Here in this wonderful Basilica dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, we gather in the Divine Liturgy in these first days of Autumn.

Although Saint Martin is held in the highest esteem throughout the Christian world, it is here, in the land of his birth, that you have honored him with such magnificence.

He was born into a time of tremendous transition, just a few years after Saint Constantine became sole Emperor of Rome, and legalized the Christian Faith, thus ending the brutal persecutions of his predecessors.

As the son of a Roman Tribune, the young Martin was expected, and indeed he agreed, to become a soldier himself. But he heard the calling of the Lord Jesus Christ from a young age, becoming a catechumen at only ten years old. His parents did not approve of his joining the new religion that was still very much a minority faith throughout the Empire. But even as a soldier, and you know this so well here in Pannonhalma from the famous statue, the Saint of God practiced his newfound faith in the Lord.

The incident is reported to have occurred in the French city of Amiens where Martin was stationed. It was a freezing cold winter’s day, and he saw a beggar shaking with the cold outside the city gates. Martin drew his sword and cut the cloak in half, giving one half to the suffering man.

Later that night, the Lord Himself appeared to Martin in a dream, and He was wearing the half of the cloak that he had given to the pauper. Then Martin heard the Lord say to the legions of Angels who stood in His divine presence: “Behold! How Martin the catechumen has covered Me with his cloak!”  ^[1]

 Immediately after this, he received baptism and decided to leave the Roman Army and become a solider of the Lord.

My Beloved Children:

It is so crucial that we have such examples of faith and devotion in our world today.

From the Mother Church of Constantinople, we see how our Slavic Brethren in Russia are pressed into war and cruelty against their Ukrainian cousins. We have been calling for an end to this unjust war, and for a cessation of encouraging these hostilities by the leaders of the Russian Church. But to this day, to no avail.

Yet, there have been some brave clergy who have stood against the tide of bloodshed and brutality endorsed by their Bishops. And there have been brave Russian souls who understand what Saint Martin understood when he declared:

I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight! [2]

Here, Beloved Children in the Lord, is the message that is most needed for our violent times. We, who bear the name of Christ and call ourselves right-believing, we who are Orthodox, must rise to our vocation to be peacemakers, to be mercy-bearers, to be those who will sacrifice their own lives for the sake of love.

In today’s Gospel, we see a similar transformation in the lives of Saint Peter and his Apostolic fishing companions. Their all-night toil, which yielded not a single catch, is a metaphor for all human activity which ignores God. 

They were fishermen, who scoured the Sea of Galilee – called Gennesaret in today’s reading – for food, and for their own livelihoods. And yet, when asked by the Lord after His divine teaching to set out into the deep, their hearts were willing to accept the challenge.

You can imagine the commotion and confusion when they landed the greatest catch of their lives! The Greek word is θάμβος – astonishment. Their nets began to tear and their boats began to sink because there was such an abundance of the catch.

An image to teach us that God cannot be constrained and cannot be contained by the webs of our machinations, or the containers in which attempt to hold Him. The nets will always tear and the boats will always sink, because our human constructs cannot contain the Uncontainable God – He Who is truly Ἀχώρητος!

The Apostles-to-be trembled with fear, and Saint Peter was ashamed and asked the Lord to depart; for the miraculous catch had revealed his own sinfulness to himself.

But what was the response of our Merciful Saviour?

Μὴ φοβοῦ· ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν. 

Fear not! From now on, you will be reeling in people unto life! [3]

The same way that the Lord transformed Saint Martin from a Soldier of war to a Soldier of the Prince of Peace, he transformed simpler fishermen into Fishers of Men!

These miracles are not so different, and in both cases, the effects of their transformations changed the world.

Saint Martin went on to become the Bishop of Tours, in France, and is revered around the world – in the Churches East and West. His story is told again and again throughout the centuries in art and architecture, and in the statue right here in your city.

And from that moment by the Sea of Galilee, Peter, Iakovos and John went on to witness the Transfiguration on Holy Mount Tabor, and to preach the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ around the Mediterranean World. So that in time, the young Martin who was born in Hungary would hear the Gospel and give up violence for peace.

Now, Dear Christians:

Let us follow their examples, and allow even the simplest aspects of our lives to be instruments by which God transforms us into creature of love, of compassion, of mercy, and forgiveness.

Let pursue peace in our families, our communities, our churches, our society, our nations, and the world.

Let us not fear to stand for the poor, the oppressed, the victimized and the powerless – no matter who they are.

For God is the God of all and God is in all.

He will always find us – in the face of a beggar on the street, or in the undeserving harvests of our lives.

Therefore, let us be on the lookout for His continual Presence, and we shall never be ashamed.

Through the prayers of the Mighty Apostles and Saint Martin of Tours, may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God the Father, and the Communion of the All-Holy Spirit be with you and all those you love; now and forever, and unto the ages of ages.

Amen!

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[1] On the Life of Saint Martin, by Sulpicius Severus; chapter 2.

[2] On the Life of Saint Martin, by Sulpicius Severus; chapter 4.

[3] Luke 5:10.