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“Lift up your gates, O princes, and lift up the everlasting gates: and the King of glory will come in” (Ps. 23:7). This is laid down and proclaimed by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of an inspired prophet. God expresses His all-holy pleasure to dwell in us. It is especially fitting to proclaim the will of our great God on this present holiday, on which we remember the entry of the Lord into the city of Jerusalem, into the city of peace, into the city of true service to God; Jerusalem is the image of a pious soul. “Lift up the gates, O princes, yours, and lift up the everlasting gates: and the King of glory will come in.” The Word of the Spirit must be understood and explained spiritually, said the holy Apostle (1 Cor. 2:14). Let us call on Divine grace from above, and consider the Lord’s appeal to us about the Lord: “Lift up the gates, O princes, yours, and lift up the eternal gates: and the King of glory will come in.” Who are the “princes” to whom the word of God is addressed here? The soul and body of a person, all his powers and abilities, his life are possessed and disposed by his mind. The mind is the ruler, king, priest, prince in the small world - in man. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God's Truth. Just as the Truth is accepted exclusively by the mind, the word of God, inviting people to accept the Savior, turns to their beginning, to the spirit, to the mind, and says: “Take up the gates, O princes, yours.” In the direction of the mind towards the Truth, in the abiding of the mind in the holy Truth - Christ - lies the essence of our salvation. What gates are commanded to be taken in order to make possible the entry of the King of Glory into the God-created city, into man? These gates are sin: “Your sins,” says the prophet, “are dividing between you and God, and for your sin, turn away its face from you” (Isaiah 59:2). The gate is called “eternal”: the sin with which we are infected at our root, in our forefathers, is endless. The Savior put an end to it. But even now sin is infinite and eternal in those who do not recognize the Savior or, recognizing Him with their lips, are denied by life. “Lift up the gates, O princes, yours, and lift up the eternal gates.” What does the expression “take it up” mean again in God’s invitation and command? Usually the gates are opened, but here the taking of them is legalized. So! It turned out that the word “open” was not enough for these gates - for sin; it was necessary to use the word “take”: you need to take the gates, take them away, destroy them completely. “Repentance for sin,” said a certain great father, “lies in recognizing your sin, repenting of it, and not repeating it” 73 . Only into that soul that decisively rejects sin, that satisfactorily cleanses itself by repentance, “will the King of glory enter.” The Holy Spirit, commanding to take the gates, commands the gates to be taken: “lift up the eternal gates.” This signifies: for the initial abandonment of sin and sinful life, a person’s own will and effort are necessary; but the forgiveness of a person’s sins, liberation from the violence of sinful habits, cleansing from sinful qualities acquired by a fallen nature, is accomplished by the action of the all-holy and all-powerful Spirit of God. “Lift up the eternal gates!” When the “eternal gates are troubled,” the King of glory enters the soul. The entry into it of the Redeemer, Savior, Lord and God, Jesus Christ, was longed for and joyful for Jerusalem. Beloved brothers! We can all be worthy of this greatest happiness if we desire it and strive to acquire it with all our hearts. Let us turn away from sin, for the sake of which the Lord turns away from us; Let us turn away from sin through sincere and real repentance! Let our thoughts, heartfelt feelings, words, and deeds be an expression of the commandments of Christ, which teach the most precise avoidance of evil and the correct, God-pleasing creation of good. By such behavior we will make ourselves a home, a church, a city worthy of Christ. “If anyone loves me,” He said, “he will keep my word; my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). “Lift up the gates, O princes, yours, and lift up the everlasting gates: and the King of glory will come in.” Amen. The saying of the Rev. Pimen the Great. Alphabetical Patericon You might be interested in: