Поучение в неделю блудного сына. О покаянии

Beloved brothers! The Holy Church, this child-loving mother of believers, who gave birth to them for salvation and takes upon herself all the concerns so that her children do not lose their inheritance - Heaven, preparing them for the successful accomplishment of the upcoming feat of the Holy Pentecost, decided today to read at the Divine Liturgy the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ about the prodigal son. What is the feat of the Holy Pentecostal? This is a feat of repentance. In these days, we stand before the time primarily devoted to repentance, as if before its gates, and sing a song filled with tenderness: “Open the doors of repentance to us, O Life-Giver!” What most reveals the parable of our Lord that we have now heard in the Gospel? She reveals the incomprehensible, endless mercy of the Heavenly Father towards sinners who bring repentance. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke XV, 10), the Lord announced to people, calling them to repentance, and, so that these words of His would be more strongly imprinted in the hearts of the hearers, He deigned to supplement them with a parable. "A certain rich man - the Gospel parable tells - had two sons. The younger of them asked his father to allocate the next part of his estate to him. The father fulfilled this. After a few days, the younger son, taking the property that had fallen to him, went to a distant country, where he squandered his estate, leading a dissolute life. When he had spent everything, there was famine in that country. The rich man's son not only began to be in need, but also came to in such an extreme state, he approached one of the local residents, and he sent him to his fields to graze the pigs. The unfortunate man, tormented by hunger, would have been glad to fill his belly with the roughest food that the pigs ate! But this turned out to be impossible. sin, consciousness of his unworthiness and a humble request to be included no longer in his father’s family - in the host of his father’s slaves and mercenaries. With such a heartfelt pledge, the youngest son set off on his journey. He was still far from his parents' house when his father saw him, saw him and took pity on him: he ran towards him, threw himself on his neck, and began to kiss him. When the son made the prepared confession and request, the father commanded the slaves: "Bring the best clothes, clothe him with them, put a ring on his hand and put boots on his feet. Bring and slaughter a well-fed calf: we will eat and rejoice. This son of mine was dead, but is alive, he was lost, but is found!" The eldest son, always obedient to the will of his father, and who was in the field, returned to the house during the feast. He found the father's behavior towards his youngest son strange. But the father, inspired by the righteousness of love, before which all other righteousness is meager and insignificant, objected to him: “My son! You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. And you should rejoice and be glad that this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, was lost, and is found!” (Luke XV, 11–32). The youngest son, according to the explanation of the Holy Fathers 20, can be the image of the entire fallen human race and of every human sinner. The next part of the estate for the youngest son is the gifts of God, with which every person, especially a Christian, is filled. The most excellent of God's gifts are the mind and heart, and especially the grace of the Holy Spirit, given to every Christian. The father’s demand for the next part of the estate to be used arbitrarily is a person’s desire to overthrow his obedience to God and follow his own thoughts and desires. The father’s consent to the issuance of the estate depicts the autocracy with which God honored man in the use of God’s gifts. A distant country is a sinful life that removes and alienates us from God. Wasting property is depleting the strength of the mind, heart and body, especially insulting and driving away the Holy Spirit through sinful acts. The poverty of the youngest son: this is the emptiness of the soul resulting from a sinful life. The permanent residents of a distant country are the rulers of the darkness of this age, fallen spirits, constant in their fall, in alienation from God; the sinner submits to their influence. A herd of unclean animals are sinful thoughts and feelings that wander in the soul of a sinner, grazing in its pastures; they are an inevitable consequence of sinful activity. It would be in vain for a person to think of drowning out these thoughts and sensations by fulfilling them: they are the most impracticable! And the fulfillment of passionate thoughts and dreams possible for a person does not destroy them: it excites them with redoubled force. Man was created for Heaven: true good alone can serve as satisfactory, life-giving food for him. Evil, attracting and seducing the taste of the heart, damaged by the fall, can only upset human properties. The emptiness of the soul that a sinful life produces is terrible! The torment from passionate sinful thoughts and sensations is unbearable, when they boil like worms in the soul, when they torment the soul that has submitted to them, the soul that is raped by them! Often a sinner, tormented by fierce thoughts, dreams and unfulfilled wishes, comes to despair; He often encroaches on his very life, both temporary and eternal. Blessed is that sinner who, in this difficult time, will come to his senses and remember the unlimited love of the Heavenly Father, remember the immeasurable spiritual wealth that abounds in the house of the Heavenly Father - the Holy Church. Blessed is the sinner who, horrified by his sinfulness, wants to get rid of the burden that oppresses him through repentance. From the parable of the Gospel we learn that on the part of a person for successful and fruitful repentance the following are necessary: ​​vision of one’s sin, consciousness of it, repentance for it, confession of it. The one who turns to God with such a heartfelt pledge, “I am still far away from him” (Luke XV, 20), God sees: he sees and already hastens to meet him, embraces him, kisses him with His grace. As soon as the penitent has made a confession of sin, the merciful Lord commands the slaves - the servants of the altar and the holy Angels - to clothe him in the bright robe of purity, to put a ring on his hand - evidence of renewed unity with the Church, earthly and heavenly, to put boots on his feet, so that his activity will be protected from spiritual thorns by strong decrees - such is the meaning of boots - commandments Christ's. To complete the acts of love, a meal of love is provided for the returning son, for which a well-fed calf is slain. This meal means a church meal, at which the sinner, reconciled with God, is offered spiritual, imperishable food and drink: Christ, long promised to humanity, prepared by the ineffable mercy of God for fallen humanity from the very minutes of its fall. Gospel parable - Divine teaching! It is deep and sublime, despite the extraordinary simplicity of the human word, in which the Word of God deigned to be clothed! The Holy Church wisely established the popular reading of this parable before the coming Pentecost. What news could be more comforting for a sinner standing in bewilderment at the gates of repentance than the news of the endless and ineffable mercy of the Heavenly Father towards repentant sinners? This mercy is so great that it surprised the holy Angels themselves - the firstborn sons of the Heavenly Father, who never transgressed a single commandment of His. With their bright and lofty minds they could not comprehend the incomprehensible mercy of God for fallen humanity. They needed revelation from Above regarding this subject, and learned from revelation from Above that it was fitting for them to “rejoice and rejoice, for their youngest brother, the human race, was dead, and is alive: and was bent, and was found” through the Redeemer (Luke XV, 32). “There is joy before the angels of God even over one sinner who repents” (Luke XV, 10). Beloved brothers! Let us use the time appointed by the Holy Church to prepare for the labors of the Holy Pentecost, in accordance with its purpose. Let us use it to contemplate the great mercy of God towards people and towards every person who wishes to be reconciled and united with God through true repentance. The time of our earthly life is priceless: during this time we decide our eternal fate. May it be granted to us to decide our eternal fate for our salvation, for our joy! May our joy be endless! May it unite with the joy of God’s holy Angels! May the joy of Angels and men be fulfilled and fulfilled in doing the will of the Heavenly Father! For “there is no will before the heavenly Father, that one may perish through these little ones” (Matthew 18:14) of people humbled and humiliated by sin. Amen. See the interpretation of Blessed Theophylact. You might be interested in: