Homily on the Sunday Before Theophany
By Archimandrite John Maslov
By Archimandrite John Maslov
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (Mark 1:3). These words of Holy Scripture speak of how the great Prophet and Baptist of the Lord prepared the people to receive Christ the Savior. This great chosen one of God was destined to prepare the way for the Only Begotten Son of God, coming into the world, to dispose and prepare people to accept Jesus Christ through his preaching of repentance. He invited all who came to him in the desert to repent of their sins and to change their way of life. And the Savior Himself, upon entering upon His public ministry to the human race, first addressed the people with a word of repentance. "Repent," He cried, "and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
The repentance preached by Saint John the Baptist in the desert and demanded of people by the Savior Himself refers not only to the temporary confession of sins, but to repentance as a virtue, as a constant disposition, a constant effort to acknowledge one's sinfulness, to purify one's heart through contrition and the pursuit of virtue. We must view repentance as our essential duty, which must be a constant and unceasing struggle throughout our earthly life. No one can avoid sin. Such is the lot of fallen man. Saint John the Theologian speaks of this: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). The Apostle Paul said of himself that he was "the chief of sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15) and "accursed" (Rom. 7:24). As for us, it is difficult to express how great and how heavy is the burden of our sins.
