On parabola on prodigal son

 https://youtu.be/miSwLh9Ns1o?si=UiiNMqYIQy6_OOm7

The Prophetic Feast of Palm Sunday and the Mystery of the Cross

18 April 2022

‘The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing.’[1] Through today’s epistle reading, the immaculate Church announces that the time of our Lord’s salvation has arrived; that the time has come for the faithful to experience once more the incomprehensible mystery of the divine Economy.

During these holy days, we no longer make petitions to God. We only offer a prayer of gratitude, which, in its fervour, turns into a fiery prayer of repentance. Besides, what more could man ask when he sees God crucified? ‘Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling.’ Now is the time to fall down on our knees and worship with reverence the mystery of the love and Passion of Christ, which begins today with His entrance into Jerusalem. It is the time to shut the doors of our senses, so that we may concentrate our mind in our heart and approach ‘with humility and reverence’[2] these eternal events.

If the world drowns us in its many cares, then the whole of Great Lent, and even more Holy Week, is granted to us as an anchor of hope, an anchor in heaven, as it provides us with the opportunity and privilege to turn our minds from things corruptible to things incorruptible, from things earthly to things heavenly, and to immerse ourselves in the mystery of the way of Christ. Through her services, hymns and readings, the Holy Church reveals this mystery to us in an exquisite manner and strengthens us to discern the way of the Lord, each one according to his own strength.

AS YOU LABOR THE FLESH, SO LABOR THE SOUL

A Homily for Holy Tuesday

St. Theophan the Recluse

pravoslavie.ru    

“As the Lord went to His voluntary Passion, He said to His apostles on the way: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed, as it is written of Him.” Come, then, and let us also journey with Him, purified in mind; let us be crucified with Him and die for His sake to the pleasures of this life” (Holy Monday Matins, Praises).

Thus the Holy Church invites us to journey, to co-suffer and be co-crucified with the Lord on these days, dedicated to the memory of His Divine Passion and death. As obedient children, you have heeded this maternal calling and entered the indicated path that leads to the Lord. And now my task is not to persuade you to obey, but, finding comfort in your obedience, to merely wish that you complete more fully and perfectly what you have already begun.

HOMILY ON THE MEETING OF THE LORD

HOMILY ON THE MEETING OF THE LORD

Delivered by His Grace Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic), 1995 in Pozarevac



Two-sided icon-tablet, late 15th-early 16th cc., Novgorod Museum-reserve



Today we celebrate a great Feast, the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple, we celerate a joyous event of the Meeting of Heaven and earth, the timeless and the transient, God and man, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Jerusalem Temple the newly born Savior was taken into the arms of the Righteous elder Simeon, who, having received a Divine promise that he would not die until he sees with his own eyes the Savior and Messiah, gave thanks to the Lord at that very moment for fulfiling that promise by saying: „Now you are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation...“. Receiving and taking into his elderly hands the Savior of the world, the righteous Elder recognized also in his prophetic vision the full history of what would be with Christ, and all of those who follow Him, and that is why He says to the Most Holy Theotokos: „Behold this Child is destined for the fall and rising, and for a sign which will be spoke against and many will stand against,“ but they will not be able to prevail, for in Him the thoughts of the hearts of many will be revealed.

Christ gives account for the thoughts of man, thus He is not only our joy, but also our judgment. Many of the Saints rejoiced in appearing before the face of Christ, and prayed: „Lord, cleanse me, have mercy on me, renew me, for if I appear unprepared before You, it will be most dreadful for me, if You only turn Your face from me.“

Lessons of the Cursed Fig Tree / OrthoChristian.Com

Lessons of the Cursed Fig Tree / OrthoChristian.Com

The Most Terrible of the Lord’s Prophecies / OrthoChristian.Com

The Most Terrible of the Lord’s Prophecies / OrthoChristian.Com

THE STONE ROLLED AWAY. EXEGESIS ON JOHN 20:2

St. John Chrysostom

   

The first day of the week(that is, the Lords day) comes Mary Magdalene, very early in the THE STONE ROLLED AWAY. EXEGESIS ON JOHN 20:2  and sees the stone taken away from the sepulcher.
For He arose while both stone and seals lay over Him; but because it was necessary that others should be fully satisfied, the tomb was opened after the Resurrection, and thus what had come to pass was confirmed. This then was what moved Mary. For being entirely full of loving affection towards her Master, when the Sabbath was past, she could not bear to rest, but came very early in the morning, desiring to find some consolation from the place. But when she saw the place, and the stone taken away, she neither entered in nor stooped down, but ran to the disciples, in the greatness of her longing; for this was what she earnestly desired, she wished very speedily to learn what had become of the body. This was the meaning of her running, and her words declare it.
They have taken away, she says, my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Monk Agapios of Kyriakodromion

God is always good and kind to everyone, more than patient with us. But He manifests His great goodness in particular towards those who are sinning. It looks as though He burdens the righteous on all sides and doesn’t give them any respite, yet He’s much more compassionate towards sinners and more easily moved to sympathy for them. He pulls them out from the cadaver of sin and brings them to repentance. The Lord says: ‘As I live, I do not desire the death of sinners, but that they should turn and live. Should the fallen not be raised? Should those who have turned away not turn back? Turn to me and I shall turn to you’. To the righteous, He says: ‘If you observe all righteousness and truth, and if you keep all my commandments and then fall into sin, I will not remember your righteousness, but you shall die in your sin’. The Lord is very strict towards the righteous, but has sympathy, immeasurable compassion and infinite goodness towards sinners. This is because, being all-wise, He knows not to frighten those who have sinned against Him, lest they fall into despair; whereas if He praises the righteous, He’ll encourage complacency. And so He shows mercy to sinners but puts His fear into the righteous, as He is terrible among the saints.

Therefore, being compassionate and seeking and desiring the salvation of sinners, He’s given us repentance as the cure and medicine. He teaches each of us the path of return and repentance through various sayings, parables and challenges, prompting us to reform. This is why today’s parable shows Him as merciful and compassionate.

There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me’. So he divided his living between them, giving half to the younger son. This parable demonstrates and manifests the power of the repentance of the returning penitent and the boundless extent of divine compassion, through which God prompts and urges sinners to repent. It calls God, Who loves the human race, ‘a father’, and both orders of people, the righteous and the sinners, ‘sons’.

Since righteousness is the oldest part and possession of human nature, this is why the elder son is called ‘righteous’, because, from the outset, human nature was embellished and dignified with righteousness, from the very beginning of its divine creation. Holy Scripture tells us that God saw what He’d made and it was very good. Because sin came later, this is why the younger son is called the sinner, since his mind and outlook were unstable and uncertain. The younger son asked his father to give him his share and the father, who loved them both equally, did so, leaving them both self-sufficient. He gave the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth and all the things therein for the enjoyment of all, the righteous and the sinners both. Neither has more than the other: the sun rises on both equally; the rain falls on everyone; and God’s blessing and benefits which He’s given in such abundance are to be enjoyed by one and all, without let or hindrance.

The younger son saw the heavens and deified them; he saw the fruits of the earth and didn’t put them to their best use; he didn’t observe God’s law but was ill-disposed towards the righteous and God’s holy prophets. Impious and sinful, he took the sun for his enjoyment and worshipped the gift as a god. He honoured the gifts but didn’t recognize the Giver. He worshipped the creation instead of the Creator. The elder, righteous son used all of these things God made for His glory and praise. He saw the heavens and, from their beauty, recognized the Creator and Primogenitor. ‘For I will regard the heavens, the work of your fingers; the moon and stars, which you have established’. He saw the world and praised and glorified the Lord Who embellished it. The righteous, who was grateful and an indispensable servant, lauded and admired the creation and therefore magnified and glorified the Creator. The sinner, though, who was ungrateful and good for nothing, also saw [the creation] and- wrongly- worshipped it.

All of us have both reason and free will and proceed as we think best. We’re not under compulsion, and virtue or wicked dealings depend on our own inclinations. Each of us can live well, in a God-pleasing manner, since we have reason and free will. This is why we praise those who have good intentions, who do good voluntarily and freely, not having been forced to do so by others. It’s not right nor reasonable to praise those who are brought back from wickedness and impiety by force or compulsion, but it is proper to recognize those who reform of their own free will. If someone is possessed of a virtue by their nature, it’s not tested; it’s only praiseworthy and redemptive when it’s exercised knowingly. So what did the younger son do when he took his inheritance? He sold it and lived the life of a prodigal. He spent lavishly and after a few days took what was left and went to another country altogether, where he threw his money away on riotous living and all manner of transgressions.

Sermon on the Apostolic reading for the Sunday of the prodigal son

Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios

In the parable of the “Prodigal Son,” which we heard from the Holy Gospel (Luke 15:11-32), we saw a situation where a man embraces “prodigal living.” He was a free man who became a slave, and grazed with the “pigs” of his fleshly passions.

This is what the Apostolic Reading is also talking about. The Apostle Paul does not hesitate to characterize sin and call it by its name. This is a contrast to what we observe in our days, in that the most obscene and unnatural acts are promoted and displayed for imitation; and that modern people cannot be held captive by the ideas of ancient times! The Apostle Paul clearly states: “The body is not for sexual immorality, but to glorify the Lord” (verse 13). And the Apostle cried: “Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man does is outside his own body; but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body” (verse 18). The most destructive sin for the body is the one that is committed against itself. How many people have been wiped out by diseases, which in our days have evolved into epidemics!

To those who claim today that “my body belongs to me and I am free to do with it as I want,” the Apostle Paul gives the following answer: “You do not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price”(verses 19-20).

The Sunday of the Canaanite Woman

From the Kyriakodromion of Monk Agapios

At that time, Jesus went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon”’. The Lord prevented His disciples from going into the lands of the pagans, but He Himself went to Tyre and Sidon which were towns where Hellenes* lived. He did so in order to condemn the lack of faith on the part of the Jews. So the Canaanite woman, who must have learned of the Lord’s reputation earlier, heard that He had come to that part of the country and approached Him crying: ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon’. With these words, the woman confessed the accuracy of her faith and shamed the Jews for not being persuaded by the words of Christ, the Saviour. She didn’t know the Law, hadn’t studied the Prophets, yet called Him God and human when asking for His mercy. By saying ‘Have mercy on me, Lord’, she acknowledged His divinity; with ‘Son of David’, His humanity.
And she didn’t say: ‘Come and heal my daughter, Lord’, but ‘Have mercy on me’ (because, miserable wretch that I am, I’m in pain and anguish over the suffering of my daughter). The latter was left alone at home, sick and almost unconscious, but the mother felt her pain and anguish all the more, precisely because she was a mother.