Слово первое в Великий Вторник

This day can be called the day of farewell for the Lord with the temple of Jerusalem and with the people of Judah. Now, therefore, He preached the last sermon in the church. You could have heard it at Matins, and if it did not touch you and did not bring you into saving fear for your own eternal fate, then this is a sign of either extreme inattention or similar insensitivity. For this sermon consists not so much of words as of words and sighs. The Savior complains in it about the bitterness of the Jewish people, about the blindness and cunning of their leaders and mentors, and predicts the terrible disasters that must inevitably follow from this for the leaders and for the led. But it is especially impossible to hear without feeling the last words that conclude the Savior’s sermon. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He exclaimed, having finished denouncing the scribes, “beating the prophets and stoning those sent to you, your fellow children desired the kokosh, just as they gather their chicks under their wings, and they did not desire it! Behold, your house is left to you empty” (Matthew 23:37–38). You might be interested in: