В среду первой недели поста

In our previous conversation about the prodigal son, we looked at the history of the self-will of the prodigal son. In the Savior's parable, the story of self-will is followed by the story of the conversion of the prodigal son (Luke 15:17–20). Now that St. The church also expects our sincere appeal to God; it is fitting for us to take into account how the unfortunate son returned to his father. “When I came to myself, I said, ‘Because my father’s hired servant has run out of bread, I am perishing with famine’” (Luke 15:17). When debauchery brought the dissolute son to extreme poverty: he came to his senses, came to his senses. ABOUT! If only every sinner would learn through the sorrows of life the truth closest to him, that he who is destined for heaven cannot have joys on earth! This is what the Heavenly Father expects and wants from us. “I came within myself.” The first action that must take place in every converted sinner is self-consciousness. A sinner, while he remains a sinner, lives outside himself and does not know himself. He knows much that surrounds him, but he himself is not known. The sinner's desires and thoughts are scattered over the objects of his passions; his life is a dream; dreams wander in his heart. Does he not know where he is going? Doesn't he know what's going on in him? What is the state of his soul? Is everything in it intact? Is everything in place? Is there any damage, is there any disorder in her body? He doesn't think about it because he's not looking at himself. There is nothing closer to you than yourself, man! and you don't know yourself. What a strange thing! Not thinking about yourself, not taking care of yourself - what a pitiful situation! Look at you, sinner! Look at your present, think about your past, take a look at the future that awaits you. Remember that you are human. “When I came to myself, I said, “Because my father’s hired servant has run out of bread, I am perishing with famine.” ABOUT! How terrible is the situation in which the sinner finds himself, as soon as he comes to his senses. “I'm starving,” he says. Yes, what did he eat before? I feed the dumb. How can one live on such food? But heavenly food, which alone is able to satisfy the immortal soul, cannot be purchased with anything or anything. The forces are upset by sin, the skills for good have long been lost, the gifts of grace have been squandered. I am relaxed, I am exhausted from sin, Lord! There is not a single solid thought from which good desires develop; There is not a single good resolution from which any good mood would be formed. It is bitter, very bitter for a sinner to look at his situation when he remembers the goodness of the Heavenly Father, when he remembers how much bread is running out in his house as a hireling. In the house of the Heavenly Father there is abundant food for all mankind. He endows even the most humble slaves, the most ordinary people, with his goodness. He adds contentment to the days of human life, which the carelessness of people could have shortened long ago. He did not leave himself unknown to the pagans, “giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and joy” (Acts 14:17); He revealed himself to them in the unwritten law, in the law of their hearts. And His son, so dear to His heart, and His son, to whom He showed so much of His love through the fathers and prophets, to whom He sent His only begotten Son for salvation, remains in rags and struggles with starvation? ABOUT! Christian is a sinner! how bitter is your poverty! How reckless is your self-will, on which all your poverty depends! “Rising up, I go to my father and say: Father of those who have sinned in heaven and before you” (Luke 15:18), this is how the prodigal son thought to himself. He now sees, which he had not seen before, that he deeply insulted his father when he ungratefully neglected his caring love and wished to live according to his own will. “I have sinned”; he speaks and does not excuse himself either by his youth or the ardor of his passions; “I have sinned,” he says, and does not think of justifying himself in any way. Is it necessary to say, listeners, that every sin of ours is an insult to our heavenly Father, as a disregard for the rights of His greatness, as a senseless contempt for His goodness? What can we say about life, which is a chain of sins? Your sins ascend to heaven, says the Holy Scriptures. Sin, violating the holy will of God, also offends the inhabitants of heaven, to whom the will of God is so dear; the sinner violates the peace of the celestials, violating the order established for the universe. We must repent and repent the way the prodigal son repented, sincerely, with all his heart. Our pride inspires us to excuse our sins with various pretexts, and even if we repent, we repent only half. But oh my God! You will judge me not because, as my pride tells me, it is mine, but as Your truth will speak. Why should I listen to my vanity? And how unfair are his comments about me! Self-love excuses our sins in us, either by the weaknesses of nature, or by the example of others, or by the goodness of God. But do our weaknesses prevent us from being strong in sin? Did the infirmities of nature prevent the saints of God from becoming saints? “We shouldn’t live in defiance of many? And why not live like many people live? That's what others say. “But many who perish will not save either us or themselves from destruction.” We are commanded to look not to the example of many, but to the example of the saints. Even if you had to live in defiance of many: live so as not to die. Is God merciful? But how strict is His truth towards the unrepentant sinner! ABOUT! God! “Do not turn my heart into the words of wickedness; do not bear the guilt of sins” (Ps. 141:4). Do not allow me, through the wickedness of my heart, to come up with crafty excuses for my sins. Otherwise, what good will it serve me? Only to greater condemnation. Forgivable sin will grow more freely in my heart; and yet it is terrible to allow sin to reach the soul, and even more terrible to call sin truth; – the latter is the work of Satan. “And your son is no longer worthy to be called: make me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19). Thus spoke the repentant prodigal son. Repentance, if it is what it should be, must certainly be humble. A sinner who sincerely repents confesses and feels that through his sins he has lost the right to the mercy of a father towards his son, because he did not live like a son. Therefore, he considers it a mercy if he is allowed to be among the servants in his father’s house. Having experienced the bitterness of sin, having learned the baseness of a lawless life, he is ready to take the very last place, as long as it is a place in the house of God; recognizes it as the greatest happiness to be at the gates of this house, so long as not to live in the palaces of wickedness, no matter how brilliant they may be. Oh! Brethren! When you begin to repent: do not be afraid of it; that you will humiliate yourself too much in your opinion. This fear would again be a matter of our pride, which is afraid to see ourselves in our present form, in our dirty form. What is sin? Worse than nothing! Where is the place for a sinner? He has no place in the kingdom of God; his place is in hell. Understand that no matter how low a sinner thinks of himself, no matter how unenviable a lot he assigns to himself, he will not be lower than that, no matter how humiliated he is by his sins. “I rise up and go to my father.” The emotional prodigal son is not content with sincerely recognizing the baseness of his position and his guilt, but decides to return to his offended father. The change that must take place in a repentant sinner should not be limited to just a review of his plight; it must be accomplished in his will. He must decide, firmly decide to part with the paths he had hitherto followed. He must decide to avoid all cases that could awaken in him one or another of his passions. He must determine himself to use all measures to extinguish bad habits in himself. These measures are difficult and painful, but he must choose them. Otherwise, the sin remaining in the wavering will will again prevail over it; habits of favorite weaknesses will again prevail over temporary good desires. Oh! How many people are found whose path is strewn with good intentions, but their good intentions remained unfulfilled and their path leaned toward hell. True repentance is not a change in one way of thinking, it is a change in the whole soul. The whole soul lived for sin. The whole soul must turn from sin to the Heavenly Father. Shame at one’s poverty, disgust at the vileness of one’s deeds, awe at God’s justice should fill the repentant soul and direct its will to a new life, to new deeds, to deeds for the Lord. A repentant sinner must testify to a change in thoughts and desires by a change in deeds themselves. Therefore, his determination to do good must be firm, unyielding to any suggestions of false friendship, or to any advice from the evil age or corrupt nature. Where can I get a firm determination to do good? There is also a lot of firmness in a person who, for the sake of worldly gain, decides to undertake all the labors and dangers. The Lord has even more of it, who refuses nothing to anyone when they humbly ask Him. Brethren! the path along which the sinful soul must return to the Heavenly Father is opened by heaven itself. With grateful hearts let us embark on this path, to the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. You might be interested in: