Homily for the 28th Sunday after Pentecost

“And we began to deny everything together” (Luke 14:18). In the parable of the guests invited to the Great Supper, the Lord Jesus showed how the Jews were disposed towards the kingdom of God, which opened with the appearance of the Son of God on earth. Rich people, elders of the people, teachers of the law, who were supposed to serve as examples of goodness to others, refused to enter the kingdom of grace. The Kingdom of Christ was not a worldly kingdom; and their hearts were tied to the earth. In response to the heavenly title, one said: “I bought a field, I need to inspect it”; “I bought five pairs of oxen, I don’t have time,” answered the other. Others were carried away by the frivolity of the world and did not listen to the gospel: “I took a wife for myself,” said their representative. Sad situation! It cannot be said that all these people were not aware of their duty and did not recognize the importance of the new title. No, those who indicated the purchase of the field and oxen said: “Forgive us to the lord; We feel that we should go, but things get in the way.” This is even more pathetic. They are aware of their duty and do not fulfill it. The Supper of God is ready for us, the listeners. And we are invited to her by the servants of the Son of God. The Lord loves poor people so much that He will not stop inviting them to His supper until the end of the world. But don’t they even now respond to the title of God with mere excuses? Unfortunately, many, recognizing holiness and piety, recognizing their duty to God, neglect piety under various pretexts, renounce it, each in their own way. What are the excuses of our time from the title of God? “We are not averse to Christian piety, some say: but worries about the house, trade, and work take up all our time; We have no time to practice piety.” It is not difficult to notice that these excuses are very similar to the excuses heard in the parable. So they say: “I bought a field, I need to inspect it; but I bought five pairs of oxen, I don’t have time.” And yet they think that with the excuses of our time they can get into the kingdom of heaven? Trade, farming, service occupations are legitimate occupations in themselves, and so on. in themselves they cannot interfere with piety. Do them with the Fear of God, with thoughts of judgment and eternity, do them without envy and anger, without deception and lies, and they will be pious. Do them as much as the thought of your first and most important duty allows - about your duty to God; stop them when you are called to serve God and go serve God: then the activities of your rank and home will be holy. “We are overwhelmed by needs,” you say. But who suppresses you with them if not you yourself? Who took away from you the need to serve God and placed on your shoulders the need to serve only in the home or trade? Didn’t the Lord Himself tell you: “seek... first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you”? (Matthew 6:33). Are you concerned about the peace of your home, success in your career, and the happiness of your trade? But wasn’t it said to you: if you begin to seek the kingdom of God, the salvation of your soul, then all other things will be added to you? These are not human promises, so deceptive; this is God's promise; But is God unable or unwilling to fulfill what he promised? But you, not trusting God, take care of everything - and what comes of it? And you take away time from piety and catch the wind: the fruits of your lawless labors perish in your eyes or are squandered by your children. No, it is not legal concerns that interfere with piety, but lawless care that knows no limits. He who has accustomed himself to manage his time and labors in accordance with the commandments of God, and sets the gospel measure to the desires of his heart: he has enough time for piety. In calm trust in the One who gives food to the birds of the air (Matthew 17:26-30), he does not torment himself with worries about earthly things. Through his labors he acquires what is necessary for life: but not only does he not call the fruits of his labors small, but gives a portion of them to those in need. On the contrary, greed for temporary goods is always dissatisfied. Do they give her what she needs? There is no rest to acquire more. Are you sending more than you need? He builds buildings to trap everything in them as food for decay. Having become attached to the earthly, they do not think about anything, are not worried about anything, do not love anything except the earth. Wife, trade, distinctions - that’s all their treasure; - their heart is right there. Complaining about lack of time? How do they spend their time? They get up, clean, walk, eat, ridicule, slander, and pass unclean things to each other. ABOUT! Why slander the faith of Christ, as if it, prescribing piety for official and family people, demands the impossible from them? If there were family and official people who pleased God with their piety, it is clear that they do not demand the impossible from anyone, demanding piety. Are you a craftsman and have a family to look after? Joseph was a carpenter; but he was honored to be betrothed to the Most Holy Virgin and became one of the saints for his righteous and God-fearing life. Are you rich? But hardly richer than Abraham or Job? Follow their example, be kind to strangers, feed orphans and widows, help the unfortunate, and your wealth will open you the entrance to the heavenly dwellings of Abraham. Are you a judge? Samuel was the judge of the entire people of Israel, and when, relinquishing the title of judge, he called everyone to say if he had offended anyone: then everyone blessed the Lord for him. – Here is an example of how you can be a judge pleasing to the Lord and people! “I got married and therefore cannot come,” said the third person invited to the supper, and did not even consider it necessary to ask for an apology. Such is youth that is flighty! “Youth,” they say, “loves to have fun; why deny her that? She will have time to pray.” “We are secular people,” others say, befitting our youth; - the world would condemn us if we went to church; You can’t go against the general opinion.” If youth is frivolous, this does not mean that it is right. But if masculine maturity follows youthful frivolity: this is a pity. Are Christians ashamed to be Christians? Can this be expected? Or do they understand what they are ashamed of? They are usually ashamed of the unclean, the base, the despicable. So, do they understand that by being ashamed to be pious, they show that they recognize Christian piety as baseness, as an object of contempt? What terrible wickedness in a Christian against Christianity! Are they ashamed to worship the Creator of heaven and earth? Are they ashamed to glorify God with the faces of angels, to stand reverently with the cherubim before the terrible mysteries of Christ? Are they ashamed to be in the assembly of the followers of Christ and in communication with the inhabitants of heaven? Are they ashamed to protect themselves with the cross of the Lord Jesus, that cross which constitutes the strength and glory of Christians? Are they ashamed of Christian behavior, without which life on earth is darkness and decay, and after death - torment? What then remains honorable and worthy of respect for them? Is it really a life of pagan debauchery? ABOUT! people who like to consider themselves educated! Don't you want to love and praise the life of dumb savagery when you are ashamed of the life of reason? “We will be condemned for our piety,” they say. Who will judge? If the gospel of Christ approves of you, then none of those whose minds and hearts are in the right place will condemn you; on the contrary, they will rejoice before the Lord for your life, worthy of a man and a Christian. Who will judge you? If they are judged by fans of vanity, people whose life is an insult to common sense and a dishonor to the name of man: can you really value their judgment in conscience? Look around, what are these people not condemning? When frivolity spends the night playing cards and loses the last property of his wife and children: they do not judge. They do not condemn either extravagance or stupid vanity in themselves. And a drunken life and an unclean life and a life of deceit and trickery are many, many, if it brings a smile to their lips; but not contempt, not disgust, not deep sorrow, on the contrary, they themselves share this life. And can you, in good conscience, value the judgment of such people? And can you consider yourself a Christian, appreciating the judgment of such people? ABOUT! remember the terrible sentence of the Lord: “Whoever is ashamed of Me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation: and the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). There is no doubt that people who breathe peace will consider it a crime in you that you will live not according to their rules, not according to the rules of the sinful world, but according to the rules of Christ. They will be very unhappy that your actions will not be like their actions; your life without words will expose their disordered life and will serve as a reproach to their conscience. But really, the love of people, no matter who they are, should be more valuable to you than the favor of God? Do you really want to neglect the will of God, the commandments of Christ, just so as not to endure troubles from people, even those close to your heart? Who should you obey more - people or God? “Still, you say, it’s better to live the way many people live. “Why go against everyone?” If your eternal salvation is dear to you, then no matter how painful it is, you must go against the frivolous world. The path along which peace-loving crowds go leads to hell; but the path to the kingdom of heaven is a narrow path and not many follow it. The Lord himself told us this, whose every word is her and amen. Many are called, but few are chosen, He said at the conclusion of His parable about those who are called. We must follow the example not of many, but of the saints. When did pious people not shy away from communication with the sinful world? Noah separated himself from his wicked contemporaries. Abraham left his native land and spent the rest of his life as a wanderer. Lot fled from Sodom. They will say: are these the times of Christianity? But the spirit of the world even now is the same as it was under Abraham and Lot; he only changed a few things in his clothes. Nowadays there is no worship of idols: but the lust of hair, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, which created and multiplied idols, still rule the world. ABOUT! leave many. What do you care about them? Many will not save you from judgment for your life. Everyone will be responsible for themselves there. Thank the Lord if He helps you correct your sick soul. If many live poorly: hell is spacious. Be afraid that you won't end up there too. “The wife,” they say, “is young; How can I deny her and myself pleasures? Oh! the love of spouses is a sacred matter: but above all is love for the Lord. The immortal soul was created not for a wife, but for the Lord. Not the wife, but the Lord - everything for us - both the Creator and the Provider and the Savior and the Judge. First of all and most of all we must love the Lord. Whoever loves anything other than God with all his heart: he sins gravely, and will be responsible for that with the suffering of eternity. It cannot be otherwise. Nowadays they consider it a rule to inflame carnal love with novels; Easy books are pleasant books, they say. Detrimental frivolity! They do not understand that carnal love is an open enemy of love for the Lord: they do not understand that this love, so actively nourished and kindled, is the enemy of both the health of our soul and the connection of marital and social good; They don’t understand that the drink they enjoy is poison. Youth says: “When old age comes, I will have time to pray.” -Youth loves to have fun. Why deny her that?” ABOUT! youth! - youth! do you understand what you want? Do you want to offer God only old age, exhausted by years and passions? Do you want to give a pure, living, immaculate soul to sin, but do you think of sacrificing your soul, soiled in the dirt of life, cold, and exhausted, to God? A body that is immaculate and has youthful strength, in your opinion, should belong to sin, but a decrepit and sickly body, completely incapable of work, should be a part of God? Are you thinking intelligently? Who told you that God's law is written only for old people? Who told you that living in the spirit and not in the flesh, humanly and not bestially, is only appropriate for old age? What do you want? Do you want to give in to your passions? What will happen to you? And your physical body will be upset and your soul will not be capable of anything. What do self-willed young men carried away by passions bring into families and society? Disobedience, insolence, insults, malfunction in everything, intolerable disorder of any order? What are they to the church? Children almost lost, for whom her labors were lost without benefit; She cries for them, the angels cry. On the contrary, the fatherland will see in you a useful servant, the family - joy and honor, you yourself - peace and contentment, heaven - a pure spirit dear to it, when from your youth you cultivate piety in yourself. And how easy it is to learn piety at your age! Your will is flexible; How long will it take to give her direction to everything noble and high? Your heart is tender as wax; the instructions of the fear of God will be imprinted on him without effort. The soul is alive, unspoiled by the rules of light; - how receptive she is to the beautiful rules and truths of St. faith! “I’ll make it, there’ll still be time,” you say. ABOUT! no, there won’t be that wonderful time that is now at your disposal. It is difficult to learn piety in old age. Sinful dispositions do not pass away, but grow over the years; bad habits become old in the soul; passions nurtured in youth grow with the heart. Sin is a mountain stream, which the further it runs, the more it increases. It is good for the young man, “if he bears a yoke in his youth” (Pl. 3:27). And who assured you that you would live to old age to repent of the sins of your youth? The Word of God teaches us, and experience also says: “The fear of the Lord adds days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened” (Proverbs 10:27). May the Lord, by grace, confirm in our hearts the sincere determination to live holy, until the grave. Amen. You might be interested in: