Homily on the Withered Fig Tree and on the Parable of the Vineyard (St. John of Damascus)

Homily on the Withered Fig Tree and on the Parable of the Vineyard 

Second Discourse

By St. John of Damascus

I am moved to speak by the personal Word of God the Father — He who did not depart from the bosom of the Father and was ineffably conceived in the womb of the Virgin; He who became for my sake what I am, He who is impassible in His divinity yet clothed Himself with a passible body like mine; He who rides upon the cherubic chariots and upon the earth mounts a colt (cf. Matt. 21:7–9).

The King of glory — He who together with the Father and the Spirit is praised by the Seraphim as holy and receives the lisping praises of children from their innocent tongues; He who is God and has the form of a servant and took the form of a servant; He who is immaterial and invisible God and yet accepted to assume a visible and tangible body; He who willingly went to the Passion, in order to grant me dispassion.

For when He saw man, the work of His hands, deceived by the guile of the serpent — man whom He had formed according to His image and likeness, yet who had fallen into the transgression of His commandment and had become subject to corruption and liable to death — He who is full of compassion could not endure the loss of the one whom He loved. Rather, He called him back in many ways to return and repentance, chastening him as an ungrateful servant, as a child of immature mind, in many and various ways, and devising every means to shake off the tyranny of the despot and return to his Creator.

Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son -- On True Repentance and the Mercy of God (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the 34th Sunday after Pentecost
(Sunday of the Prodigal Son)
On True Repentance and the Mercy of God

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:18)

Beloved faithful,

In Holy Scripture God is called the “Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3), because He continually shows mercy to sinners who return to Him with all their heart through true repentance. God says through the Prophet Isaiah: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). In another place, through the same Prophet, God says: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil… Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:16–18).

This truth was also fulfilled in the case of the prodigal son from the Holy Gospel that was read today. First, he came to himself; he longed for the happiness he had enjoyed when he was in his father’s house; then he said: “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger!” (Luke 15:17). These were the words of the prodigal son when he came to himself — that is, when he began to recognize the weight of his sins. Without this feeling and awakening, none of the sinners can return with all their heart to the all-good God.

Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today we began to sing the 136th Penitential Psalm: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion; upon the willows in the midst thereof we hung our harps” (Psalm 136:1-2). The time of Great Lent is approaching. And in this wondrous and terrible Psalm, we hear both the lament of the Jews expelled from their earthly Fatherland, and the lament of the Christian who has lost his heavenly Homeland. We are all strangers and aliens, exiles on this earth. Our Homeland is in Heaven with God the Father, to which we must strive. We all hear and sing at the Divine Liturgy the words: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). These words signify not only a lament for sins, but a lament for the fact that man has not yet reached his homeland in Heaven. Gregory of Nyssa said that "truly blessed is he who has no permanent city on earth, who seeks the Heavenly Fatherland, who strives for Heaven." Such a person will certainly be comforted. He will find his homeland — the Promised Land; he will find that very Heavenly Jerusalem, the homeland of all Christians. As the Apostle Paul said: we all "died with Christ" (Col. 2:20).

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:18)

Beloved brethren, who among us has not labored and does not labor for sin every day, willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, in understanding or in ignorance? Who has not angered the Lord, infinite Truth and Love? Who has not been wounded by the blade of sin and felt its sharpness and bitterness — the heavy confusion of conscience, sorrow and distress, those constant companions of sin? All of us, from the least to the greatest, are sinners before God, and therefore are subject to punishment and separation from Him. And if the Lord, in His boundless love and mercy toward fallen humanity, had not granted repentance and the forgiveness of sins for the sake of the sacrificial death on the Cross of His only-begotten Son, then all people would have descended into hell, the place of eternal torment. But glory be to the all-good and all-wise God, who has given repentance to sinners unto eternal life. Countless multitudes of sinners have been washed by the words of repentance, justified and sanctified by the most pure Blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our sins and bore all the punishments prepared for us — and now they rejoice with the Angels in the dwellings of the saints. All of you standing here, sinners like myself — do you cherish this priceless gift of the Lord, the gift of repentance? Do you sigh like the publican, weep like the harlot, wash your bed with tears like David the forefather? Do you return to the heavenly Father with sincere and deep repentance, like the prodigal son of whom you heard in today’s Gospel reading?

Homily for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee -- On Pride and Humility (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost
(Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)
On Pride and Humility

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts;
for what is exalted among men is an abomination before God.” (Luke 16:15)

Beloved faithful,

In many places of Holy Scripture it is shown how great, how soul-destroying, and how hateful to God the passion of pride is. But no small measure of the wickedness of this sin can also be understood from the teaching of today’s Holy Gospel. Since I am too small and unskilled to show in writing or speech how many forms this evil of pride has and how varied it is, I shall bring before you a most wonderful teaching of Saint John of the Ladder on this subject. From this it will be known how many heads this dreadful beast of pride has, and by this the wise and discerning will understand how multicolored and dangerous this sin is.

Here is what this holy father says about pride:

“Pride is the denial of God, the teaching of demons, the contempt of men, the mother of condemnation, the great-granddaughter of praise, the sign of barrenness, the expulsion of God’s help, madness, the forerunner of falls, the cause of epilepsy, the source of anger, the door of hypocrisy, the strength of demons, the guardian of sins, the cause of mercilessness, ignorance of compassion, the bitter examiner of the faults of others, an inhuman judge, a hostile fighter against God” (Philokalia, vol. IX, Homily 25, On Pride, Bucharest, 1980).

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on January 11, 1915)*

The publican and the Pharisee came to the temple to pray. During his prayer the Pharisee boasted of his deeds and condemned others, while the publican, in deep awareness of his own unworthiness, prayed thus: “God make atonement for me the sinner.” The former the Lord condemned, and the latter He justified, saying: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13–14).

Dear ones, if we look at outward actions rather than at the inner disposition of the heart, the Pharisee cannot at all be called a bad man. In any case, he was blameless in a civic sense and outwardly pious. And yet his prayer was rejected. On the contrary, the publican was not without sins and vices. He himself acknowledged his sinfulness, and yet his prayer was heard. Why is this so? Here is why: the Pharisee prayed arrogantly, with a disposition of spirit in which he fully revealed himself. For in prayer people show themselves as they truly are and as they live. The Apostle's words can be applied to the life of the Pharisee in the Gospels and his prayer: “Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive… having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2–5).

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee  

By St. John of Kronstadt

The present week in the Church order of weeks is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. It is so named because on this day the Lord’s parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read from the Gospel. In this parable, by the example of the publican and the Pharisee, the Lord teaches us with what disposition of soul we ought to pray in church or wherever we may be. Let us listen to how the Pharisee prayed and how the publican prayed; which of them pleased God by his prayer and which did not; by what one was pleasing and by what the other was not, so that we too may learn always to pray in a way pleasing to God and not unto condemnation. Prayer is a great thing: through prayer a person communes with God, receives from Him various gifts of grace, thanks Him as Benefactor for His unceasing mercies, or glorifies Him as the all-perfect Creator.

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

To certain people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, Jesus Christ told the following parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not as other men are — extortioners, unjust, adulterers — or even as this publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ Now the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote himself on the breast, saying, ‘God make atonement for me the sinner.’ I tell you,” Jesus Christ adds, “that this publican went down to his house justified, but not that Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So, this is what it means to boast about oneself and demean others! Look at this Pharisee praying in the temple of God. He took nothing from anyone, did no wrong to anyone, and led a chaste life; he fasted twice a week; he gave a tenth of his estate to the Church and the poor. Who would not say that this Pharisee was a righteous man? Yet it was not he who went home justified, but the tax collector. Yes, this virtuous Pharisee ruined all his virtues by praising himself and demeaning his neighbor.

December: Day 31: Teaching 2: On the Eve of the New Year

December: Day 31: Teaching 3:
On the Eve of the New Year
 
(One More Year!)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. At the coming of the new year, I find it very timely, brethren, to offer to your love the parable of Jesus Christ about the barren fig tree.

“Jesus Christ spoke this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the vinedresser, ‘Behold, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why should it even exhaust the soil?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well; but if not, then next year you may cut it down’” (Luke 13:6–9).

A new year has come, my brethren.

Homily Two on the Eleventh Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Eleventh Sunday of Luke
(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. 

Homily Two on the Ninth Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Ninth Sunday of Luke  
(26th Sunday After Pentecost)

On the Foolish Rich Man
Luke 12:16–21

By St. John of Kronstadt  

 

Today we read the Gospel of Saint Luke about the foolish, selfish rich man who collected only for himself and did not share his wealth with those in need (Luke 12:16–21). This is a parable; therefore, its meaning is obviously much broader than it seems at first glance. By a rich man we must understand people of every rank, title, and condition, endowed by God with every good and material prosperity, and not only landowners and people of taxable status. Likewise, by a good harvest of the field we must understand not only natural, plant products, that is, wheat, rye, and the like, but all material prosperity: a rich inheritance, a large salary received from the state treasury, rich income provided by some place or position, direct or indirect, overt or secret - good, profitable trade, a good income from renting out houses, a profitable craft, and so on. Thus, this parable, like a net, catches very many and, in a word, all those who have good means of living. 

Homily Two on the Fifth Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

Homily Two on the Fifth Sunday of Luke  
(22nd Sunday After Pentecost)

On the Rich Man and Lazarus

By St. John of Kronstadt

In today's Gospel, beloved brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself depicts the visible inequality of people's status and lives in this temporal life and, correspondingly, the inequality of their fate in the endless afterlife. This Gospel is highly instructive for all of us, for people of every status and rank. It tells the story of an unnamed rich man, and a beggar named Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31).

Who then is this ill-fated rich man, this luxurious merry fellow, who has inherited eternal torment? Judging by the fact that he calls Abraham his father, and that he and his brothers were familiar with the writings of Moses and the Prophets, one must assume that the rich man was of Jewish descent and law, a descendant of Abraham. What was his sin, his guilt, for which he so unexpectedly found himself in hades? The Gospel says that he was rich; but, undoubtedly, wealth was not the cause of such terrible torment which the rich man experienced in hades. Abraham, in his time, was also a very wealthy man, yet his wealth did not prevent him from being a friend of God, for he was hospitable, welcoming, and in all respects faithful and obedient to God. It is further said that he was clothed in purple and fine linen, that is, in a manner befitting a king, and that he feasted splendidly every day. It would seem that there is no particular fault in this either; a wealthy man, who has thousands and perhaps millions in money and vast estates, why should he not dress in silk and velvet? Even in the present time, this is not considered an extraordinary luxury, although at that time, fine linen was particularly expensive. Furthermore, it is said that he feasted magnificently every day, meaning he ate, drank, and enjoyed himself with his friends and flatterers; yet even in our enlightened era, frequent feasts and expensive dinners are common, and those who host them do not think that they are grievously sinning or destined for hades, especially if they do not forget the poor. Let us proceed further in seeking the fault of a wealthy merry fellow. 

Homily on the Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Eleventh Sunday of Pentecost*

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on August 10, 1914)

One slave owed the king 10 thousand talents (about 26 million rubles). The king forgave the slave this debt. But the slave turned out to be extremely angry and ungrateful: one of his companions owed him a hundred denarii (21 rubles 50 kopecks), and he did not want to forgive him or wait for the debt to be paid, and for this he was forever imprisoned.

Friends! The Heavenly Father acts with us, sinners, in the same way as this generous and merciful King. But we often, like this evil slave, do not want to forgive anything to our neighbor, and for that we will be severely punished.

Forgiving others for their guilt is necessary for our salvation. After all, we are all sinners without exception. Each of us has offended God many thousands of times. We are consoled by the paternal indulgence and mercy of God and hope for forgiveness. And it is truly given to us. God Himself offers it to us. But He set conditions, and if we do not fulfill these conditions, then, despite God's mercy, we die in sin.

Homily for the Eleventh Sunday of Matthew (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily for the Eleventh Sunday of Matthew
(11th Sunday of Pentecost)

By St. John of Kronstadt

Today, beloved brethren, the Gospel parable of the Savior was read, in which He, the Lord our God, likened the Kingdom of Heaven or His righteous Judgment over people to a king, “who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, 'Pay me what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers, till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive each of you from your hearts his brother his trespasses" (Matthew 18:23–35). I have repeated the entire Gospel that was read, so that you may remember it better.

Through the Theotokos "the Mortal Drachma Has Been Found"

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The work of man’s salvation is likened to the woman who had ten drachmas and lost one of them, so she lit a lamp, swept the house, and searched diligently to find the lost drachma. And when she found it, she called her friends and neighbors together and said to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.” And by saying this parable, Christ assures His listeners that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:8-10).

The drachma signifies the soul of man and, more broadly, man, who was created by God to be in His image. The drachma was a silver coin and bore "royal marks," according to Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Man is "the royal image," as stated by Saint Theophylact, and "we were created in the royal image, that is to say, in the image of the God over all," according to Saint Cyril of Alexandria. However, when man distanced himself from God and fell into the place of impurities, Christ, who is the prototype of the creation of man, is likened to a woman who lit a lamp to find man.

The Brother of the Prodigal Son (Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol)

The Brother of the Prodigal Son

By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is enough in itself to teach us the whole mystery of the Father's divine love and the way of salvation and of the return of people to God. Thus, usually, greater importance is given to the prodigal son and the way of his salvation, but also to the presence of the Father, who with His ineffable fatherly love accepts his prodigal son back. However, the other son, the prodigal's brother, remains on the sidelines, without anyone dealing with him. When I therefore hear this parable, my mind remains on this type of man, because I feel that we "religious" people are most like him.

We are in danger from the syndrome of this man. It is a great danger that lurks for all of us. In the Gospel, the eldest son is mentioned in a few words.

When the prodigal son returned and was welcomed by his father and ordered that the best robe be brought to clothe him, and that the fattened calf be sacrificed and that there should be joy and gladness in the house, because the prodigal was like a dead man who has survived, who was lost and is now found, the parable continues: “Now his elder son was in the field.”

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

By St. John of Kronstadt

“Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything” (Luke 15:15–16).

This is what the younger prodigal son mentioned in the Gospel parable finally came to, who, due to some incomprehensible willfulness, did not want to remain in his father’s house, where, as he himself later confessed, even “they give bread to hired hands” (Luke 15:17). Instead of a native, truly friendly community with his older, intelligent and well-behaved brother, he now attaches himself to one inhuman inhabitant of that unfortunate region to which he had moved away from his father, and in which he had squandered his property, living in fornication. The cruel inhabitant "sent him into his fields to feed swine” (Luke 15:15). Instead of the perfect contentment and abundance which he had previously found in his father's house, he now suddenly suffers extreme and shameful poverty - the fruit of a dissolute life, so that he desires to fill "his stomach with the pods that the swine ate" (Luke 15:16). So disastrous, brethren, was it for the prodigal son who left his parental home, with the property he had received by division, to a distant and foreign country!

Homily One for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily One for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

By St. John of Kronstadt

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself, 

‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men — 

extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican'" (Luke 18:11).

Being teachers of the faith among the Jewish people, the Pharisees boasted of their knowledge of the law, and meanwhile, more than anyone else, they dishonored God by breaking the law and their extreme hypocrisy. The Savior assessed them well, saying that they loved the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces (Luke 20:46). This unfortunate passion of exaltation arose in them from a false exaggeration of their merits, since, being public teachers of the faith, they knew well the law of Moses, which very many of the Jews did not know. The publicans were tax collectors, and, according to their rank, they very often resorted to illegal means of their levies. In the Gospel we see an amazing example of humility and self-denial of one publican in Zacchaeus, the chief of the publicans. When the Savior came to his house, Zacchaeus, in a deep feeling of repentance, said to the Lord: “Behold, half of my goods, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have wronged anyone in any way, I will restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8).

December: Day 24: Teaching 1: Venerable Martyr Eugenia

December: Day 24: Teaching 1:
Venerable Martyr Eugenia
 
(Why Does the Word of God Have Little Effect in our Souls?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Eugenia, whose memory is celebrated today, was the daughter of the Egyptian ruler Philip, who, although a pagan, treated Christians meekly. In his free time, Philip loved to teach his daughter everything he knew, and he knew a lot. Under her father's guidance, Eugenia learned to speak Greek and Latin perfectly - she read a lot, learned a lot. She had excellent abilities, especially a good memory. She only had to read or hear some new truth once and she never forgot it.

One day, Eugenia accidentally found the epistles of the Apostle Paul, read them attentively and decided to convert to the faith of Christ. She happened to be outside the city.

Passing by a monastery, she heard Christians singing: "All the gods of the peoples are demons, but the Lord made the heavens," and immediately remembered what she had read in the Apostle Paul. That same day she was baptized and entered the monastery. After some time, Eugenia converted her parents and brothers to Christ.

Homily on the Eleventh Sunday of Luke: On the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers and On Those Called to the Wedding Supper (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily on the Eleventh Sunday of Luke
(28th Sunday After Pentecost)

On the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers
and on Those Called to the Wedding Supper

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters, two weeks before the feast of the Nativity of Christ, our Holy Orthodox Church reminds us of its approach and prepares us to meet it worthily. In the present, first preparatory week for the feast, she remembers the saints who lived before the Nativity of Christ – the Old Testament prophets and all the pious people who awaited the coming of the Savior with faith, which is why this Sunday is called the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers. With this remembrance, she mentally transports us to the times of the Old Testament, to the times preceding the appearance of the Savior promised by God, and to encourage us to moral self-purification, she places before us a whole host of great forefathers who shone with their God-pleasing lives.

All the forefathers lived in hope for the Redeemer who would appear and constantly expressed their faith in Him. But while a small number of pious people were expecting the appearance of Christ the Savior on earth and accepted Him, the majority of the God-chosen people of Israel did not accept Christ the Savior, rejected God's voice and care for their salvation, deprived themselves of eternal blessed life, which is what was read today in the Holy Gospel.