Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

And now, fear the Lord and serve him in uprightness and in righteousness and put away the foreign gods that our fathers served in the region of them beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if it is not pleasing to you to serve the Lord, choose for you yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers in the region of them beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites among whom you live upon their land. I and my household will serve the Lord because he is holy.’” And in response, the people said, “May it never happen to us that we should depart from the Lord to serve other gods. The Lord our God, he is God. He brought us up and our fathers from Egypt and protected us on the whole way that we went on it and among all the nations that we passed by. And the Lord drove out the Amorites and all the nations dwelling in the land from our presence, but we also will serve the Lord for he is our God.” (Joshua 24:14–18 LXX)

Therefore, what Joshua said to the people when he settled them in the holy land, the Scripture might also say now to us. The text reads as follows, “Now fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and righteousness.” And it will tell us, if we are being misled to worship idols, what follows, “Destroy the foreign gods which your fathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.”

Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom 17

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”… From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:60, 66–69)

“To whom shall we go?” Peter asks. In other words, “Who else will instruct us the way you do?” or “To whom shall we go to find anything better?” “You have the words of eternal life”; not hard words, as those other disciples say, but words that will bring us to the loftiest goal, unceasing, endless life removed from all corruption. These words surely make quite obvious to us the necessity for sitting at the feet of Christ, taking Him as our one and only teacher and giving Him our constant and undivided attention. He must be our guide who knows well how to lead us to everlasting life. In this way, we shall ascend to the divine court of heaven, and entering the church of the firstborn, delight in blessings passing all human understanding.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.4