Homily Two on the Eleventh Sunday of Luke
(28th Sunday After Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
(28th Sunday After Pentecost)
By St. John of Kronstadt
“A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses" (Luke 14:16–18).
Today, my brethren, the Gospel parable was read about a very rich and hospitable man who hosted a magnificent evening or dinner and invited many to it. However, despite the kindness and hospitality of the host and the richness of the dinner itself, those invited, as if by agreement, all began to decline for various, though rather disrespectful, reasons. One replied that he had bought land and was going to see it; another that he had bought five yoke of oxen and was going to test them; a third that he had married and therefore could not come.
This parable, or riddle, must be solved. Here is what it means. The rich and hospitable man who hosted the feast is the Lord God; the great dinner or feast is eternal blessedness in heaven; those invited or called to the feast are you and me; the servant sent with the invitation to the feast is not a simple servant, but the Son of God Himself, who took on the form of a servant, that is, who became incarnate and became man for our sake, the Son of God. Oh, what an honor to those who are called! - you cannot help but exclaim. The Only-begotten Son of God Himself invites us to the great supper of the Kingdom of Heaven; but those invited declined on various pretexts.
Do you not notice that the parable is aimed directly at many of us, if not at all of us? Let us explain. Here we are now standing in the temple, all having listened to the liturgy. The liturgy is a model for the future supper, and is itself a great supper, for at it the Lord offers us His most pure, life-giving Body and His most pure, life-giving Blood as food and drink, under the guise of bread and wine. I alone, and then mainly out of the duty of the priesthood, supped with the Lord, but all the others present here did not approach the Lord's supper. Let us assume that this was done out of a sense of unworthiness. But very, very many do not even come to liturgy, in order to participate at least with sight, hearing, and spirit in the Divine Supper; and they do not come very often for empty reasons: some because of carelessness and laziness, some because of some worldly activities or vanity, but all in all because of some kind of frivolity, some very superficial, light and careless attitude to our most important work on earth - to the work of our spiritual education and salvation, and because of various earthly attachments and sinful habits, in a word, they tie themselves hand and foot and do not want to come to the temple - to this kingdom of God on earth, to this wondrous, all-saving, all-life-giving, all-joyful supper of God, at which the Son of God offers us such wonderful food and drink - His own life-giving Body and His own life-giving Blood - this mystery of rebirth and immortality.
The Kingdom of God has come near us, descended from the heights of heaven, entered our temples, our very homes, so that no one can say: "Who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, Who will descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)" (Rom. 10:6–7)? For Christ is both in our lips and in our hearts, especially when we partake of His Holy Mysteries: and what then? – And the very proximity of the kingdom of Christ does not convince us to take two or three steps to come to the call of the church to the Holy Liturgy. If we do not value such great gifts of God, offered to us with such love, with such condescension here on earth, in these churches and in homes, and do not want to enter into a taste for them, then how will we prepare ourselves for the inheritance of eternal, ineffable blessings, the firstfruits of which the Lord offers us here as a pledge and assurance of the future? What shall we do in paradise, when we do not find sweetness and consolation in being in the temple, hearing the word of God, participating in the supper of the Lamb? Think: to what degree of foolishness we have reached in our sins, how they have darkened us, bound us, deadened us, depriving us of spiritual understanding, spiritual taste and spiritual freedom. We seem to spasmodically, involuntarily, out of habit, extend our gaze, hearing, lips, hands, feet, and all our senses only to earthly things, to earthly blessings, and turn away from heavenly blessings; whereas those only deceive us for a moment, while these are eternal and truly life-giving.
What then, brethren, do we need? Faith and spiritual understanding or discernment, insight into the essence of the matter, and most importantly, repentance: for our sins have blinded us, deafened us, and overpowered us. "Repent," says the Lord, "for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2), and hasten all to the Lord's Supper, to the Supper at which the banquet of immortality is offered, the banquet of indescribable sweetness. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
