Apostles of the 70 Erastus, Olympas, Herodion, Sosipater, Quartus, Tertius; Our Venerable Father Arsenios of Cappadocia, the Wonderworker (1924)

For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. ¹¹Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. ¹²We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. ¹³Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

¹⁴I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. ¹⁶I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

but he who didn’t know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.

⁴⁹“I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled. ⁵⁰But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! ⁵¹Do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division. ⁵²For from now on, there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. ⁵³They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴He said to the multitudes also, “When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it happens. ⁵⁵When a south wind blows, you say, ‘There will be a scorching heat,’ and it happens. ⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don’t interpret this time?

⁵⁷“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸For when you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be released from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹I tell you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the very last penny.”