Martyr Julian of Tarsus; Our Holy Fathers Julius and Julian (5th c.); Terentios, Bishop of Iconium

For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. ¹³For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

¹⁶But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ¹⁸But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation. I will make you angry with a nation void of understanding.”

²⁰Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.”

²¹But about Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

¹I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God didn’t reject his people, whom he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions ¹⁷and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’ ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

²⁰Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent.