In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

To find out what something is, it is worth asking what its opposite is. What is the opposite of righteousness? The opposite of righteousness is injustice, falsehood, and craftiness. So, living in righteousness means, first of all, that we must resolutely renounce all these evils.

Saint Peter writes in today’s Epistle: “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers.” In fact, it is a quote from Psalm 34: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.”

Saint Peter knew how true these words were. But he also knew something else: he knew, he had personally experienced, that contrary to what we as humans would expect, the Lord looks with a gracious, merciful heart even upon sinners and comes to their aid as soon as they cry out to Him in repentance. Peter knew that the Lord hears our heartfelt prayers even when our words say otherwise.

St. Paul says in his Letter to the Romans: “The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” All creation expects something, eagerly, in excitement – something great, good and wonderful.

Is this what we feel when we look around us? Or is it rather that the expectation we perceive is borne of fear, some inexplicable premonition that something bad is about to happen? Wars, natural disasters, famine, disease… all this has accompanied the mankind throughout the ages, even when it has sometimes seemed that we have overcome it, have finally learned something, have developed to the point that we no longer depend on the whims of nature.

Saint Augustine said something like this: “Everyone loves exaltation, but the only way to ascend there is by the steps of humility.” In today’s Epistle, Saint Peter also exhorts us to humility, because “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

Recently, a politician, speaking about freedom and independence, rightly said that freedom is not something that can be taken for granted and that independence must be fought for and preserved. Unfortunately, the same politician added something that cannot be considered right: that freedom does not come from anyone’s grace.

Peter means “rock”. Apostle Peter might have resembled a rock in terms of his appearance: we don’t know anything about it directly, but since he was a professional fisherman and leaves a rather strong impression in the accounts of the Gospels and the Book of Acts, we can assume that he was a big and strong man.

This may have been his biggest stumbling block in following Jesus: His own self was the “rock” on which he stumbled and fell many times. For example, when he thought he had to rebuke Jesus, who had predicted His suffering and death, and lead Him back to the “right path,” so that Jesus had to admonish him with terrifying severity: “Get behind me, Satan!”