Sermon from 2 March 2016
FIRST READING
Is. Nav. 5:9a, 10–12
In those days: And the Lord said to Jesus, ‘Now I have taken from you’
The humiliation of Egypt. And the sons of Israel stood there
camped at Gilgal, and celebrated the Passover at
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, on the plains
The people of Jericho. And on the day after Easter, they began to eat from
the produce of this land, unleavened bread and dried grain in
That very day. And the manna stopped falling on the next day
the day after they started reading the works
land, and there was no more manna for the Israelites, but
That year they ate the produce of the land of Canaan.
SECOND READING
2 Corinthians 5:17–21
Brethren: Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; the old
That’s in the past; now everything is new. It is all from God, through Jesus
Christ, who has reconciled us to himself and has given us
the ministry of reconciliation; for God in Christ
reconciled the world to himself, not holding people’s sins against them
them, and gave us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore ambassadors
in the name of Christ, and as if God Himself were admonishing through
us; in the name of Christ, we urge you: be reconciled to God.
For He made Him, who knew no sin, a sacrifice for us in place of
so that, through Him, we might be made righteous before
God.
THE GOSPEL
Luke 15:1–3, 11–32
All the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus —
to listen to him. But the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying:
He welcomes sinners and eats with them. But He said to them
the following parable: a certain man had two
his son; and the younger of the two said to his father, ‘Father! Give me
‘the part of the estate that is due to me.’ And their father divided it amongst them
estate. A few days later, the youngest son,
Having gathered everything together, he went off in the opposite direction and spent it all there
his own estate, living a dissolute life. When he had squandered it all,
A great famine struck that country, and he began
be in need. So he went off and pestered one of the locals
that country; and he sent him out to tend his flocks
pigs. And he was happy to fill his belly with their horns,
which the pigs were eating; but no one gave him any. When he came to
to himself, he said: ‘How many hired hands does my father have?’
They have bread to spare, yet I’m starving!
I will get up, go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father! I
I have sinned against Heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy
to be called your son; accept me among
‘your hired hands’. He got up and went to his father. And
Whilst he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
He was moved with compassion; and, running up to him, he threw his arms round his neck and kissed him.
But the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son
‘yours’. And the father said to his servants, ‘Bring
Take the finest clothes and dress him in them, and put the ring on
his arm and shoes on his feet. And bring a well-fed one
the calf, and slaughter it; let us eat and be merry! For
‘This son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost, and
‘He’s been found.’ And they began to celebrate. As for his eldest son,
He had been out in the fields; and, on his way back, as he approached the house,
He heard singing and rejoicing. And, having called one of his servants,
asked, ‘What is this?’ He said to him, ‘Your brother
He came; and your father slaughtered a fattened calf,
‘because he had accepted him in good health’. He flew into a rage and did not
He wanted to go in. His father, however, came out and called him. But he said
In reply to his father: ‘Look, I’ve been serving you for so many years and…’
I have never disobeyed your command; but you
He never even gave me a little goat to have some fun with
with my friends. And when your son,
You, who squandered your fortune on prostitutes, have come,
‘slaughtered a fattened calf for him’. He, too,
said to him: ‘My son! You are always with me, and everything that is mine
yours. And that was something to be glad about and to celebrate,
that this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life; he was lost, and
'was found'.
Can a person run away from God? Beloved ones in
In the name of Christ our Lord, dear brothers, dear sisters, formally
A person may acknowledge that God does not exist, or that God is not like that,
as the Church portrays Him, or that a person supposedly
carries a certain God in their heart and nothing else, or that this God
evil, or that God is not interested in this world, or that God
too far away, and so on. You can find a million
various reasons for trying to run away from God,
try to pretend that I’ve got nothing to do with it, and my
relations with God – they are not at all important; in the extreme
In this case, it’s just my personal relationship, and nothing more.
But can a person really run away from themselves?
Can he run away from his own shadow? After all, everyone
People have all sorts of problems. And there are different ways to approach
These are the issues in question: you can choose to ignore them
attention; pretending that nothing is happening;
to pretend that these problems do not exist, to turn a blind eye to them.
You can suppress these problems within yourself, or you can project them
take their problems out on those around them, and this happens very often
is happening in the world. Psychologists, including specialists in
sexologists know full well how one can project
projecting one’s own intimate problems onto those around them. It is possible to
always try to pretend that I don’t have any problems
No, I’m fine, I’m doing the right thing, and everything seems to be
All right.
But here is a person who is trying to escape from
himself, to run away from God – is he happy?
That is, in fact, the main question that presents itself
Today’s Liturgy of the Word in this famous
The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Are we capable of being happy?
After all, today is the Sunday of Lent known as
joyful – ‘Laetare’. It calls us to joy.
The younger son in this famous parable is quite
He acted sensibly, at first glance. He was entitled to
A share of the estate? Of course he was entitled to it. Did he dispose of it?
Acted deliberately, of his own free will, without any
Under duress, he did everything he wanted. What is more, it seemed that,
He even had quite a good time, as the parable tells us.
He went off and squandered his fortune, living a dissolute life. As he said,
In short, a dissolute life is the kind of life that is meant here by
in this respect, consists in an attachment to earthly pleasures, the very
varied. It doesn’t necessarily mean a dissolute life, just
in one, shall we say, sensual aspect of it. No, that’s
any attachment to the pleasures of this world, which becomes
the main purpose of our lives, and which becomes the most important
the value of our lives. That is precisely what this debauchery is all about.
That is a completely reckless attitude to life.
We are, of course, very familiar with this parable. We know it from
famous paintings, which actually emphasise it in
the moment of the prodigal son’s return. For what reason is this
Has the son gone back to his father? Well, it’s because of this dissolute life,
It turns out it didn’t bring him that very joy to which
We all strive for it. It didn’t bring him that particular kind of happiness, but
brought nothing but disappointment. And that disappointment
This was evident, amongst other things, in the fact that he even had to
to tend pigs. In Jewish circles, this is the most humiliating thing
activity, because pigs are unclean animals. What’s more,
not just to tend pigs. It turns out that these pigs, which are unclean,
were, to some extent, happier than he was: the pigs
were well fed. And the prodigal son tried to use these horns,
which were intended for pigs, to fill
her own womb, in order to somehow ease the feeling
hunger. To put it symbolically – just to somehow
try to be happy. And in the end, he
makes the only right decision: ‘I’ll get up and
‘I shall go to my father.’
The Merciful Father is the second main character
in this parable, who took pity on the man in distress, took pity on
the emptiness, the meaninglessness of his son’s life.
It was that very thing that could have brought him happiness in this life
a merciful father. Many argue as to who, strictly speaking,
This parable and what it is properly called: ‘The Prodigal Son’
Or ‘On the Merciful Father’? On our sins, in which
one must repent, or else about God, Who is that very
the pinnacle of mercy, O God, who loves us and Who
Does He forgive our sins? One could argue endlessly about whether
and other things. But there is one important truth we need to understand, namely
the fact that sin always, inevitably, brings a person
suffering. Sin can never bring a person
joy and happiness. Joy – at best
temporary, just like that of the prodigal son – temporary
joy; a temporary state of licentiousness in the broadest sense
of that word. But never complete joy and happiness—
will bring.
Dear brothers and sisters, but in today’s parable
There is another character. One who is no less important, in
In fact, it is the eldest son, about whom, as a rule, we
we keep quiet out of embarrassment, because it’s very awkward
to focus specifically on the eldest son in this parable. Now
I’ll try to explain why. After all, the eldest son is
the image of that very person who, it would seem, was normal and righteous
a person. This is someone who listens to their father. In particular, he,
He was working in the field, carrying out his duties, and it would seem that,
What’s wrong with that? Everything’s fine, everything’s brilliant. You can
I can even understand his indignant reaction. How can that be? I’ve been
I work for you, and you’ve never even given me
opportunities to slaughter a kid for a bit of fun with
my friends, but you gave this fornicator a proper welcome straight away
a formal reception. One might think, from a human perspective,
It is perhaps even possible to understand this reaction.
But it is important to focus on something else – the fact itself
the words of his eldest son. Why did he say that? Let’s consider
note that Jesus tells this parable
the Pharisees, in the context of their resentment towards Jesus. Jesus speaks to
with tax collectors and sinners. He prefers their company
the devout Pharisees, the so-called spiritual elite of the Jews
back then. That is precisely what strikes a particular chord with them.
Why? Well, simply because they didn’t experience the joy of interacting with
By God. Just as in the case of the elder son in today’s parable.
On the face of it, we seem to be doing everything correctly, but this
the joy of communion with God – no. We seem to accept
the sacraments – it would seem that we pray, go to church, and
We try to observe the fast, but there is joy in our hearts
For some reason, there isn’t. At the same time, we’re ready to feel envious,
to look down on others; what is more, we are even prepared to
to hate others.
We recently learnt of a very strange case in which
which is hard to believe at all. In one of the towns
A trial has begun in Russia against a young man,
who allegedly insulted someone on social media
religious feelings, by saying that there is no God. He was sent away
even for a psychiatric assessment. It’s hard to believe that
believe it. As recently as 30 years ago, in this country, people were sent to
a mental hospital, and they could lock someone up just for what they said,
that God exists. And today, it turns out, they can send you to
The same investigations are carried out for statements claiming that God does not exist. How does one respond to this?
How might people of faith react? I find myself thinking –
I suppose I’ll have to defend it, if I get the chance
that poor man. And everyone who organised this should
I’d recommend reading the parable of the Prodigal Son and watching
particularly the image of the eldest son.
What does it mean to be a person of faith?
It turns out we can talk as much as we like about our
a spiritual and religious revival; however, this may
turn out to be nothing more than a farce. An ordinary farce, nothing more
changes within the heart if faith does not bring joy, if we
If we cannot see God’s presence in our lives, then it’s not worth a penny
this faith. That is the true meaning of today’s parable.
Today, our focus is not so much on sins as on
on God’s love. It is God who is able to forgive; it is God
He is able to bring a sinner out of this state; He is able to
to sanctify us. It is God who is able to heal the wounds that
lie deep within us, and which we often do not love
call things by their proper names, because we’re too shy to,
we feel ashamed, we try to make ourselves seem better than those around us,
We try to suppress them. We start to become paranoid,
to look for enemies and adversaries everywhere around us: amongst our
neighbours, amongst members of other faiths, others
nations… whoever you like. We’re prepared to look for conspiracies everywhere
any enemies, whatever you choose to call them – starting with
from imperialists and exploiters to all sorts of
religious fanatics – that doesn’t change the essence of the matter. In our
The same problems always linger in our hearts. No matter how we
whatever they called themselves – atheists, Catholics,
Orthodox Christians, Muslims – anyone, really. The very same
Problems: a lack of a genuine relationship with God. Only God
is able to heal the wounds caused by our sins.
Only God is the true merciful Father, and He
is capable of bringing us true joy. Amen.
Is. Nav. 5:9a, 10–12
In those days: And the Lord said to Jesus, ‘Now I have taken from you’
The humiliation of Egypt. And the sons of Israel stood there
camped at Gilgal, and celebrated the Passover at
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, on the plains
The people of Jericho. And on the day after Easter, they began to eat from
the produce of this land, unleavened bread and dried grain in
That very day. And the manna stopped falling on the next day
the day after they started reading the works
land, and there was no more manna for the Israelites, but
That year they ate the produce of the land of Canaan.
SECOND READING
2 Corinthians 5:17–21
Brethren: Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; the old
That’s in the past; now everything is new. It is all from God, through Jesus
Christ, who has reconciled us to himself and has given us
the ministry of reconciliation; for God in Christ
reconciled the world to himself, not holding people’s sins against them
them, and gave us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore ambassadors
in the name of Christ, and as if God Himself were admonishing through
us; in the name of Christ, we urge you: be reconciled to God.
For He made Him, who knew no sin, a sacrifice for us in place of
so that, through Him, we might be made righteous before
God.
THE GOSPEL
Luke 15:1–3, 11–32
All the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus —
to listen to him. But the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying:
He welcomes sinners and eats with them. But He said to them
the following parable: a certain man had two
his son; and the younger of the two said to his father, ‘Father! Give me
‘the part of the estate that is due to me.’ And their father divided it amongst them
estate. A few days later, the youngest son,
Having gathered everything together, he went off in the opposite direction and spent it all there
his own estate, living a dissolute life. When he had squandered it all,
A great famine struck that country, and he began
be in need. So he went off and pestered one of the locals
that country; and he sent him out to tend his flocks
pigs. And he was happy to fill his belly with their horns,
which the pigs were eating; but no one gave him any. When he came to
to himself, he said: ‘How many hired hands does my father have?’
They have bread to spare, yet I’m starving!
I will get up, go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father! I
I have sinned against Heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy
to be called your son; accept me among
‘your hired hands’. He got up and went to his father. And
Whilst he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
He was moved with compassion; and, running up to him, he threw his arms round his neck and kissed him.
But the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son
‘yours’. And the father said to his servants, ‘Bring
Take the finest clothes and dress him in them, and put the ring on
his arm and shoes on his feet. And bring a well-fed one
the calf, and slaughter it; let us eat and be merry! For
‘This son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost, and
‘He’s been found.’ And they began to celebrate. As for his eldest son,
He had been out in the fields; and, on his way back, as he approached the house,
He heard singing and rejoicing. And, having called one of his servants,
asked, ‘What is this?’ He said to him, ‘Your brother
He came; and your father slaughtered a fattened calf,
‘because he had accepted him in good health’. He flew into a rage and did not
He wanted to go in. His father, however, came out and called him. But he said
In reply to his father: ‘Look, I’ve been serving you for so many years and…’
I have never disobeyed your command; but you
He never even gave me a little goat to have some fun with
with my friends. And when your son,
You, who squandered your fortune on prostitutes, have come,
‘slaughtered a fattened calf for him’. He, too,
said to him: ‘My son! You are always with me, and everything that is mine
yours. And that was something to be glad about and to celebrate,
that this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life; he was lost, and
'was found'.
Can a person run away from God? Beloved ones in
In the name of Christ our Lord, dear brothers, dear sisters, formally
A person may acknowledge that God does not exist, or that God is not like that,
as the Church portrays Him, or that a person supposedly
carries a certain God in their heart and nothing else, or that this God
evil, or that God is not interested in this world, or that God
too far away, and so on. You can find a million
various reasons for trying to run away from God,
try to pretend that I’ve got nothing to do with it, and my
relations with God – they are not at all important; in the extreme
In this case, it’s just my personal relationship, and nothing more.
But can a person really run away from themselves?
Can he run away from his own shadow? After all, everyone
People have all sorts of problems. And there are different ways to approach
These are the issues in question: you can choose to ignore them
attention; pretending that nothing is happening;
to pretend that these problems do not exist, to turn a blind eye to them.
You can suppress these problems within yourself, or you can project them
take their problems out on those around them, and this happens very often
is happening in the world. Psychologists, including specialists in
sexologists know full well how one can project
projecting one’s own intimate problems onto those around them. It is possible to
always try to pretend that I don’t have any problems
No, I’m fine, I’m doing the right thing, and everything seems to be
All right.
But here is a person who is trying to escape from
himself, to run away from God – is he happy?
That is, in fact, the main question that presents itself
Today’s Liturgy of the Word in this famous
The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Are we capable of being happy?
After all, today is the Sunday of Lent known as
joyful – ‘Laetare’. It calls us to joy.
The younger son in this famous parable is quite
He acted sensibly, at first glance. He was entitled to
A share of the estate? Of course he was entitled to it. Did he dispose of it?
Acted deliberately, of his own free will, without any
Under duress, he did everything he wanted. What is more, it seemed that,
He even had quite a good time, as the parable tells us.
He went off and squandered his fortune, living a dissolute life. As he said,
In short, a dissolute life is the kind of life that is meant here by
in this respect, consists in an attachment to earthly pleasures, the very
varied. It doesn’t necessarily mean a dissolute life, just
in one, shall we say, sensual aspect of it. No, that’s
any attachment to the pleasures of this world, which becomes
the main purpose of our lives, and which becomes the most important
the value of our lives. That is precisely what this debauchery is all about.
That is a completely reckless attitude to life.
We are, of course, very familiar with this parable. We know it from
famous paintings, which actually emphasise it in
the moment of the prodigal son’s return. For what reason is this
Has the son gone back to his father? Well, it’s because of this dissolute life,
It turns out it didn’t bring him that very joy to which
We all strive for it. It didn’t bring him that particular kind of happiness, but
brought nothing but disappointment. And that disappointment
This was evident, amongst other things, in the fact that he even had to
to tend pigs. In Jewish circles, this is the most humiliating thing
activity, because pigs are unclean animals. What’s more,
not just to tend pigs. It turns out that these pigs, which are unclean,
were, to some extent, happier than he was: the pigs
were well fed. And the prodigal son tried to use these horns,
which were intended for pigs, to fill
her own womb, in order to somehow ease the feeling
hunger. To put it symbolically – just to somehow
try to be happy. And in the end, he
makes the only right decision: ‘I’ll get up and
‘I shall go to my father.’
The Merciful Father is the second main character
in this parable, who took pity on the man in distress, took pity on
the emptiness, the meaninglessness of his son’s life.
It was that very thing that could have brought him happiness in this life
a merciful father. Many argue as to who, strictly speaking,
This parable and what it is properly called: ‘The Prodigal Son’
Or ‘On the Merciful Father’? On our sins, in which
one must repent, or else about God, Who is that very
the pinnacle of mercy, O God, who loves us and Who
Does He forgive our sins? One could argue endlessly about whether
and other things. But there is one important truth we need to understand, namely
the fact that sin always, inevitably, brings a person
suffering. Sin can never bring a person
joy and happiness. Joy – at best
temporary, just like that of the prodigal son – temporary
joy; a temporary state of licentiousness in the broadest sense
of that word. But never complete joy and happiness—
will bring.
Dear brothers and sisters, but in today’s parable
There is another character. One who is no less important, in
In fact, it is the eldest son, about whom, as a rule, we
we keep quiet out of embarrassment, because it’s very awkward
to focus specifically on the eldest son in this parable. Now
I’ll try to explain why. After all, the eldest son is
the image of that very person who, it would seem, was normal and righteous
a person. This is someone who listens to their father. In particular, he,
He was working in the field, carrying out his duties, and it would seem that,
What’s wrong with that? Everything’s fine, everything’s brilliant. You can
I can even understand his indignant reaction. How can that be? I’ve been
I work for you, and you’ve never even given me
opportunities to slaughter a kid for a bit of fun with
my friends, but you gave this fornicator a proper welcome straight away
a formal reception. One might think, from a human perspective,
It is perhaps even possible to understand this reaction.
But it is important to focus on something else – the fact itself
the words of his eldest son. Why did he say that? Let’s consider
note that Jesus tells this parable
the Pharisees, in the context of their resentment towards Jesus. Jesus speaks to
with tax collectors and sinners. He prefers their company
the devout Pharisees, the so-called spiritual elite of the Jews
back then. That is precisely what strikes a particular chord with them.
Why? Well, simply because they didn’t experience the joy of interacting with
By God. Just as in the case of the elder son in today’s parable.
On the face of it, we seem to be doing everything correctly, but this
the joy of communion with God – no. We seem to accept
the sacraments – it would seem that we pray, go to church, and
We try to observe the fast, but there is joy in our hearts
For some reason, there isn’t. At the same time, we’re ready to feel envious,
to look down on others; what is more, we are even prepared to
to hate others.
We recently learnt of a very strange case in which
which is hard to believe at all. In one of the towns
A trial has begun in Russia against a young man,
who allegedly insulted someone on social media
religious feelings, by saying that there is no God. He was sent away
even for a psychiatric assessment. It’s hard to believe that
believe it. As recently as 30 years ago, in this country, people were sent to
a mental hospital, and they could lock someone up just for what they said,
that God exists. And today, it turns out, they can send you to
The same investigations are carried out for statements claiming that God does not exist. How does one respond to this?
How might people of faith react? I find myself thinking –
I suppose I’ll have to defend it, if I get the chance
that poor man. And everyone who organised this should
I’d recommend reading the parable of the Prodigal Son and watching
particularly the image of the eldest son.
What does it mean to be a person of faith?
It turns out we can talk as much as we like about our
a spiritual and religious revival; however, this may
turn out to be nothing more than a farce. An ordinary farce, nothing more
changes within the heart if faith does not bring joy, if we
If we cannot see God’s presence in our lives, then it’s not worth a penny
this faith. That is the true meaning of today’s parable.
Today, our focus is not so much on sins as on
on God’s love. It is God who is able to forgive; it is God
He is able to bring a sinner out of this state; He is able to
to sanctify us. It is God who is able to heal the wounds that
lie deep within us, and which we often do not love
call things by their proper names, because we’re too shy to,
we feel ashamed, we try to make ourselves seem better than those around us,
We try to suppress them. We start to become paranoid,
to look for enemies and adversaries everywhere around us: amongst our
neighbours, amongst members of other faiths, others
nations… whoever you like. We’re prepared to look for conspiracies everywhere
any enemies, whatever you choose to call them – starting with
from imperialists and exploiters to all sorts of
religious fanatics – that doesn’t change the essence of the matter. In our
The same problems always linger in our hearts. No matter how we
whatever they called themselves – atheists, Catholics,
Orthodox Christians, Muslims – anyone, really. The very same
Problems: a lack of a genuine relationship with God. Only God
is able to heal the wounds caused by our sins.
Only God is the true merciful Father, and He
is capable of bringing us true joy. Amen.