St. Paul American Coptic Orthodox Church Podcast - Sermon
Aug 16, 2026 · 9 min · 5 segments
Fr. Andrew Iskander - Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Mesori. True satisfaction comes only from Christ, not worldly pursuits. Like St. Matthew, who left everything behind, we are called to recognize our…
The deer is panting because the deer... was maybe running from a predator or is tired after searching for water to drink.
The deer is dissatisfied and knows that the only thing that will give it a sense of security and rest is when it is able to drink from the streams of water.
Sure, if we are dissatisfied with the world, but satisfied with God in prayer, hope, and sacrifice, then this is a good thing.
Now, if we are dissatisfied with the world and God, then it means we are depressed.
We may not know totally what St. Matthew was dissatisfied with, but we could probably conclude that he was dissatisfied with the trade-off of being a tax collector while being rejected by all the Jewish people.
So when Christ invited him to be his disciple, there was already nothing else that was satisfying him.
When we are dissatisfied with things, sometimes we use our senses to discover something else to bring us satisfaction.
But then we run in circles because in the end, we will always still be dissatisfied.
But I guess the reasonable question, or one of the reasonable questions we can ask is, well, why does Jesus even bring satisfaction? I might be doing many spiritual things, and yet I still don't feel satisfied.
Only if we believe wholeheartedly that there is eternal life and that my existence has a significance to God, a significance to others and to myself.
If I believe those things, then he is the only one that exists wholly and without change while everything else is fleeting.
It's also easy for us to see that when our loved ones depart from this world, nothing goes with them.
So that security of my faith is why we desire to be satisfied by Christ, because there is that reality that one day I will depart from this world.
And so St. Augustine, he says, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
The deer is panting because the deer... was maybe running from a predator or is tired after searching for water to drink.
The deer is dissatisfied and knows that the only thing that will give it a sense of security and rest is when it is able to drink from the streams of water.
Sure, if we are dissatisfied with the world, but satisfied with God in prayer, hope, and sacrifice, then this is a good thing.
Now, if we are dissatisfied with the world and God, then it means we are depressed.
We may not know totally what St. Matthew was dissatisfied with, but we could probably conclude that he was dissatisfied with the trade-off of being a tax collector while being rejected by all the Jewish people.
So when Christ invited him to be his disciple, there was already nothing else that was satisfying him.
When we are dissatisfied with things, sometimes we use our senses to discover something else to bring us satisfaction.
But then we run in circles because in the end, we will always still be dissatisfied.
But I guess the reasonable question, or one of the reasonable questions we can ask is, well, why does Jesus even bring satisfaction? I might be doing many spiritual things, and yet I still don't feel satisfied.
Only if we believe wholeheartedly that there is eternal life and that my existence has a significance to God, a significance to others and to myself.
If I believe those things, then he is the only one that exists wholly and without change while everything else is fleeting.
It's also easy for us to see that when our loved ones depart from this world, nothing goes with them.
So that security of my faith is why we desire to be satisfied by Christ, because there is that reality that one day I will depart from this world.
And so St. Augustine, he says, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
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