Today we celebrate another Triumph of Orthodoxy, as we commemorate the one, who, on behalf of all the ascetics of the Church, confirmed what was once proclaimed by the St Apostle Peter: “you might be partakers of the divine nature”.

No less than that, “the divine nature” we, Orthodox Christians, still claim the God’s grace to be. The true and original Doxia, the Glory of God!

And it could seem that the clarity of the apostle’s words does not give any way to misinterpretation, yet there were people, long after the last ecumenical council, that taught of the God’s grace as created.

That certainly diminished the God’s deed of Salvation, and undermined the very essence of the Salvation – the real reunion with God, to the greatest and mystical extent…

What exactly did the apostles see when they ascended the mountain and the appearance of Christ before them changed? His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white and shiny, like snow, like a bleacher on earth cannot whiten! So, what did they see?

The Holy Fathers — ancient and those closer to our time — agree to say that the apostles saw the uncreated Divine Light.

Saint Gregory Palamas compares what happened on Tabor [ˈteɪbə] Mountain with the inspiration by the Holy Spirit that happened to all the saints.

For example, with the righteous Simeon the God-receiver, who took the Infant Christ into his arms and said these great words of his: Now you let go of Thy servant, Master.

How did he learn about Who he was holding then? The grace of God revealed it to him. No human considerations, no calculations, knowledge or science could reach and teach this. For his purity of life, for his righteousness, for his love for God, the Lord let him understand that, which is invisible by nature.

We see the same in the meeting of the righteous Elizabeth with the Mother of God, when the baby — John the Baptist — leaped with joy in her womb, and Elizabeth herself says: why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

How did she know this, is it from books? Did someone tell her?

The Lord revealed it to her.

What kind of power moved Apostle Peter when he said: You are Christ, the Son of the Living God?

Christ Himself says what was that power: Blessed are you, …, for it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but My Father.

The action, the energy of the same Grace of God, the Holy Spirit.

But this is also a great responsibility, that really echoes the words of the Lord about self-denial, which are the spirit of the Great Lent.

And this is uncovering the greatest sense of this self-denial, the goal of the ascetic labours of a Christian.

To be a part-taker of the divine nature, the divine ineffable energy.

As one preacher and hierarch once said: “we cannot only become spirit-bearing in some figurative sense, but truly God-bearing by becoming, through grace, which is the very Deity, partakers of the Divine life, and Divine Nature.”

So great is the call for us, so let us try and apply all the perfect means of the Great Lent.

“Quench not the Spirit”, says another Apostle – St. Apostle Paul.

And the Great Lent is the most authentic interpreter of these words, about the spirit and the spirits, translating it for us in simple words and giving us its Lenten mind to understand:

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of slothfulness (that is spiritual passiveness and laziness), despair, lust of power, and idle talk.

First – get rid of that ‘spirit’! To clean the vessel for the Spirit of Truth.

What kind of Spirit it is:

But give me rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. [And] grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother!

Come to the chruch more often and pray this simple prayer during the Great Lent, and be on guard as of which spirit is our treasure…

“support the weak, be longsuffering toward all. See that none render unto any one evil for evil… Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

And it is right there that St. Apostle says: “Quench not the Spirit”,

Through the holy intercessions of the St. Apostles Peter and Paul, and the venerable hierarch Gregory, who we listen to and commemorate today, О Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us. Amen.

Today we have the first Sunday of the Great Lent, and as all the Lenten Sundays, it is dedicated to some special event or the commemoration of the saint, and today it is the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

It is not in vain that this feast of Orthodoxy is done on occasion of the first week of the Great Lent and during the Great Lent, for all the faithful that made it real by establishing the pure and true Orthodox faith, really revealed it by their ascetic labour of temperance and self-denial and thus following Christ (according to his word).

This is how they have obtained God’s grace necessary and crucial for the revelation of the true undamaged (as we say) teaching and doctrine and dogmas.

And we should remember that our doctrines are all about the incomprehensible and inconceivable; they don’t try to make it fully rational, but just protect this mystery of God and His Salvation from the false rationalization and profanation (de-sacration).

Thus, they are called (initially, in Greek) the limits, those that confine the infinite truth, not daring to express it completely but by cutting off the false and primitive, and especially – extremely harmful for the Salvation, ideas.

Sometimes they sound like “It is not like this, but the opposite is also a dangerous profanation”. And this is because we speak of the divine and mystical, not of the human or worldly!

And there must be a lot of humility to acknowledge, and a lot of wisdom to correctly express the ideas this way. And it is only due to the divine grace that what the ascetics obtained through labour, this true Orthodox Faith was revealed to everyone, including us, for our protection and salvation.

That is why we celebrate it during the Great Lent.

The formal reason for the feast was the final restoration of the icons, and the sound (yet really simple) doctrine about them. As it was the last false teaching, and that (in 787) was the last ecumenical council.

The iconoclasm (fighting the icons, very cruel and murderous to many Christians and humble and faithful monastics) occurred when under the influence of some non-Christian ideas, due to this influence, some Christians lost their freedom to express their due love and glory-giving to Christ, Who is God in the flesh, by the natural means of expressing it in images and pictures of what they, as Apostle John the Theologian says, saw and touched by their hands: “which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life”.

It is also written: «The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father» (John 1:14). The Word became flesh! And if flesh, then, of course, the Incarnate One has both form and image—something that can be described. And the description can be done both with words and with colors.

And this last doctrine was more about the freedom than the limits.

Do we depict the essence? No, we depict the image. Or do we cherish the images of the loved ones? Or do we rather express our love through the images?

Do we throw away any photo when/since it has lost the resemblance to them, of their childhood, their adolescence, student or school years?

We certainly don’t! The photos and pictures almost mysteriously depict the personality of our beloved ones.

This is how our Christian faith, on the one hand defends the Truth, defining its borderlines, and on the other, gives us all the freedom to touch it, to partake of if, and to love and glorify it.

With the feast and the triumph of our Orthodox Faith, dear brothers and sisters. Amen!

Tomorrow, brothers and sisters, we embark on the journey of Great Lent. The Church has been preparing us for this special period over the past few weeks. Today’s Sunday is the last before the start of the Holy Forty Days and is dedicated to a very sorrowful event—the expulsion of our forebears from paradise. When we say that the history of humanity begins with the Fall, we mean, first and foremost, that all the descendants of Adam and Eve were born after their expulsion from paradise. Therefore, the entire human race, originating from our first ancestors, consists of people who have never known paradise or experienced life within it, for Adam’s sin closed the way for humanity.

Holy Scripture recounts the creation of the first humans and their life in paradise. The entire world created by God was perfect, and paradise was a special place where people lacked nothing.

People were also perfect, but not in the sense that they had no need for further perfection. Rather, they had no defects, flaws, or deficiencies that could hinder their path to deification. Today, for example, if we wish to do a good deed, pray, or contemplate God, we immediately face various difficulties: overwhelming fatigue, distracting emotions, pressing concerns, and worries. However, the original Adam and Eve had none of these obstacles. Nothing hindered them from ascending the ladder of divine union ever higher. This was the perfection of Adam and Eve.

Despite their perfection and their ideal surroundings, our ancestors were given commandments by God. The first of these was to cultivate the Garden. As Blessed Augustine says, «In the tranquility of a blessed life, where there is no death, all labor is the preservation of what one possesses.» Thus, work in paradise was not burdensome toil «by the sweat of one’s brow» (Gen. 3:19) but rather a light duty and a contemplation of the Creator’s works. The second commandment was the prohibition against eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was this commandment that our forebears transgressed, resulting in their expulsion from paradise.

God, foreseeing the Fall, had already predestined the salvation of humanity through the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity before the foundation of the world. In the Book of Revelation, Christ is referred to as «the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world» (Rev. 13:8).

But why has the Church established the remembrance of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise on the eve of Great Lent? Why, for example, is today not dedicated to Christ’s forty-day fast before His public ministry or some other Gospel event? Great Lent is, in a way, a summary of all Sacred History; that is why it begins with the remembrance of the Fall and ends with Pascha—the day of salvation. Great Lent is a reminder of humanity’s journey from the Fall to Redemption.

Let us recall the biblical text: paradise contained many different trees, among them the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2:9). The fact that these two trees grew side by side indicates their connection. The Tree of Life granted life, while the Tree of Knowledge granted wisdom. We cannot correctly understand what kind of knowledge is meant without considering the specific nature of biblical language. To «know good and evil» means to possess wisdom and the ability to discern. Thus, when King Solomon prayed, he said: «Give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people and to distinguish between right and wrong» (1 Kings 3:9).

Knowing good and evil means distinguishing between what is beneficial and what is not, and rejecting what is evil: «Turn from evil and do good» (Ps. 34:14). St. Maximus the Confessor says that the Tree of Knowledge granted the ability «to hold onto some things and avoid others.» And our forebears, of course, were meant to develop this ability in paradise.

Then why was the fruit, which was supposed to grant such important and necessary wisdom, forbidden? And why did Adam and Eve receive something entirely different than they had expected after eating it?

Let us recall the well-known words of the Apostle Paul regarding the mystery of Communion: «Let a person examine himself, then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment on themselves» (1 Cor. 11:28–29). The Apostle explains that a divine gift can be received unworthily, without proper preparation, and without self-examination, leading to the opposite of the intended blessing: one «eats and drinks judgment.» The same principle applies to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The issue was not the fruit itself, but the inner state of those who approached it.

Today is not only the day of remembrance of our forebears’ expulsion from paradise—it is also Forgiveness Sunday. On this day, before the beginning of Great Lent, we ask forgiveness from others and forgive in turn. Our Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly speaks about the necessity of forgiveness. But then why did the Creator not forgive Adam and Eve? Why did He not allow them to remain in paradise but instead banished them from Eden? God is love (1 John 4:16), and forgiveness is an expression of love. Why, then, did He not forgive them?

To answer this difficult question, we must return to Scripture. After the Fall, the Almighty asks Adam: «Where are you?» (Gen. 3:9). The All-Seeing and Omnipresent God, of course, knew where His fallen creation was. His words are not just a question but an invitation to repentance.

Explaining these words, St. Basil the Great writes: «The All-Seeing did not require information, but He wanted Adam to reflect on what he had been and what he had become.» It is not a question about Adam’s physical location but about his spiritual state.

Instead of repentance, instead of acknowledging his guilt and seeking to return, Adam does the opposite—he shifts the blame: «The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it» (Gen. 3:12). Eve follows the same path: «The serpent deceived me, and I ate» (Gen. 3:13). Is this shifting of blame true repentance? Does it even resemble remorse? Or even regret for what was done? No!

Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise because paradise was no longer paradise for them; it had become the place of their fall. They themselves wished to hide from the Lord.

Today, brothers and sisters, we do not have memories of paradise. No one, except the first people, has experienced life there. But we do have another important experience—the experience of lacking paradise, a longing, a spiritual dissatisfaction. From this sense of deprivation is born a great desire—a thirst for God, a search for the Lord: «My soul thirsts for God, for the living God» (Ps. 42:2). True repentance is born from this feeling, from this thirst, from this state.

The Church reminds us of this and leads us back to paradise—through fasting, through repentance, through the recognition of our sinfulness. All this is done so that when the Lord asks us, «Where are you?» we will not hide but will answer: «Here I am» (Gen. 22:1). «Lord, save my soul; save me by Your mercy» (Ps. 6:4). Amen!

Matthew 25:31-46 (Gospel)

The Lord said: When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

During the previous two preparatory Sundays we were reminded of the Mercy of God to the penitent tax collector (the Publican) and the prodigal son. Though, also of those who put impediments to this mercy…

This, third preparatory Sunday, as we hear the name of it – it’s the Sunday of the dread, awful and final Judgement of Christ, and we are reminded of the just retribution too… as if it already happened…

Especially if we would read only the first part of the parable:

The Lord said: When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

However, we keep reading on and we find out, that there is something very much unexpected, and not only for the unjust (not good), but also – to the righteous and kind…

I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

The essence of the understanding of the Last Judgment, as the holy fathers of the Church saw it, is that the final fate of each of the people is determined not only by our attitude to the things divine (and fearful), but to the things usual and… that might seem profane (and meaningless) … Not only what is happening here in the temple, but what is happening on our way to the church, our daily life…

The Last Judgment, at which the sheep are separated from the goats, begins here on earth, right where we live every day!

Every time that we see our rightness, our correctness, — and the flaws of others… and have a righteous wrath (anger) against such…

In the perfect world the perfect or good people do not thirst or are not in the prison, and everyone has a family and a home…

Somehow, however, when Christ came into this world he would say, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

A meeting with a person in need or in distress is a meeting with Christ,

In other words, it is meeting with what is meaningless for the world, so much everyday, which maybe IS our life…

It is a Terrible Judgment, so as to either judge such people (is that actually to judge ourselves?) or to help them and have mercy on them (or is it to give chance to God to give us mercy?)…

Again, this is a terrible judgment, if we prefer to judge!

Why don’t we have compassion to them. They are the least of His brethren, because just like Him, they remind us that the world is full of evil. That no one can live good by doing only good in this world…

On this reason the life is not good for them (yes, in a way because they are part of this world). On this reason the life was not good for Christ, Who chose to voluntary become part of this world.

A good reason to be closer to such people. As some our writers used to say – to be closer to the real life…

Besides, He came for the sick and suffering, fully associated Himself with them! Became one of them! He is not a king for now.

So, let us lay aside our lives cares during the Great Lent, and receive the King of all, Who comes invisibly to us, for now, in the persons of the least people of this world. Amen.

The story of the prodigal son is a common story for many families across all times and nations. The Lord Jesus Christ uses this narrative—painfully familiar to every person—to convey a profound spiritual meaning through the images of the father and his sons.

When is an inheritance typically received? Not just financial support or some funds, but an actual inheritance? Clearly, only in the event of the owner’s death. The prodigal son is a selfish man. This is his primary sin. He loves himself and his passions. His desire for freedom and inheritance is merely a way to indulge himself…

But as often happens in life, this proud youth encounters a company of like-minded “friends”. Nothing unites them—neither friendship, nor love, nor the search for truth, nor spiritual pursuits. The only thing they share is a passionate, reckless way of life. Toward one another, they are insincere, hypocritical, and flattering. And when the younger son «squandered his wealth in wild living» (Luke 15:13), he inevitably found himself alone…

For a Jew, tending (feeding) pigs was an extremely degrading occupation. It was, in a sense, the lowest point of social downfall. Even more humiliating was being unworthy of the food given to pigs.

Reaching the deepest level of humiliation, the prodigal son, as Scripture says, «came to himself» (Luke 15:17). These are very important words. They indicate that the state in which the prodigal son had lived was like a dream, oblivion, even like being drunk. The carefree life he had sought turned out to be an illusion. And now he comes to himself, realizing his true situation: he, the son of wealthy parents, a free man, had fallen so low as to become nothing, not even someone’s servant, but a slave. And with this revelation, the repentant son understands that he must return home—to his father.

In the prodigal son’s situation, it is vividly shown that a person who desires to live apart from God, in a spiritual sense, descends lower and lower. Eventually, such a person loses their dignity and instead develops base, animalistic tendencies. Often, it is only when one finds oneself in the filth of sin—symbolized here by the pigs—that they recognize their spiritual emptiness. And then, coming to themselves, they begin the journey home to the Heavenly Father. It was not easy for the prodigal son to decide to return home. The Gospel words conveying his internal monologue serve as a form of self-motivation for this action: «How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father» (Luke 15:18). Moreover, the repentant son prepares a speech he intends to deliver before his father: «Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants» (Luke 15:19). His words are filled with humility and an acknowledgment of his guilt.

And as he approaches home, his father sees him from afar, recognizes him, and runs to meet his prodigal child. Let us recall the speech the prodigal son had prepared for his father. Now the long-awaited reunion takes place. The son begins to deliver his speech. But notice a detail that often escapes us when reading this parable: the prodigal son only says the first part; he does not complete the second part: «make me like one of your hired servants.» This does not happen because he forgot or changed his mind, but, as biblical commentators explain, because his father interrupts him. In the very act of his son’s return, the father sees his repentance and understands perfectly well what was happening during his son’s time away. The father does not wait for an elaborate confession. He does not need speeches. He needs his son! The saints say, «The father redeems the son’s sins with a kiss and covers them with his embrace. He does this to avoid exposing the son’s transgressions, to spare him suffering.»

Filled with joy, the father commands: «Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet» (Luke 15:22). The best robe, the sandals, and the ring are symbols of status (cf. Genesis 41:42). By bestowing them upon his son, the father shows that his son is fully forgiven and restored. The lost sonship and its restoration carry immense significance, not only in this parable but throughout all Holy Scripture. Humanity was called to become children of God, but the fall of our ancestors and our personal sins cause us to lose this status. God does not wait, much less he demands humiliation from us—He simply sees our desire to return and immediately runs toward the repentant soul.

This parable is always read on the second preparatory Sunday before Great Lent. The image of the prodigal son is also present in many other church texts. All of this naturally leads us to see ourselves in the prodigal son. It instills in us an important realization: for God, sinners are still His children, whose return is awaited by a loving Father. In this context, the image of the prodigal son even becomes appealing, and we find comfort in the thought that no matter how much we sin, we will be forgiven like the prodigal son. All that is required is to «come to ourselves (to senses),» repent, and return to the Heavenly Father. This is true… but what if… what if we are not the younger prodigal son, but his older brother? Who among us sees themselves in the older son? For within his character lies a terrifying mystery—the mystery of false sonship, pride, unforgiveness, and envy.

Thus, in the older son’s personality, we see not a good and obedient son but a selfish and envious man, secretly wishing for his father’s death to receive the entire inheritance. A striking detail: the older son does not say to his father, «Why have you accepted this drunkard and wastrel who will probably continue his reckless ways?» He does not warn his father that his mercy might be abused again. No, the older son reveals the true cause of his grievance: «You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends» (Luke 15:29). So this is what he longed for! This is what was on his mind! He, too, wanted to enjoy himself with his friends. And he hates his younger brother because the latter did so and was still forgiven!

Again, we say: it is easy to see ourselves in the prodigal son, who, in the end, is a positive character because he repented and was forgiven. But let us closely examine the older son and ask ourselves: can I truly accept and rejoice in the spiritual gifts and blessings of others?

Our Lord Jesus Christ says to His disciples, «In My Father’s house are many rooms» (John 14:2). In this Father’s house, there is a place for everyone who comes and seeks the love of the Father. But can all the household members live together in peace and harmony? People are so different from one another. Of course, they can—but only those who are willing to transform themselves completely, from the inside out. The Heavenly Father will not drive anyone away, but many may choose not to enter the Father’s house at all. Just like in today’s parable, when the father welcomes the younger son home, the older, as the Scripture says, «became angry and refused to go in» (Luke 15:28).

Brothers and sisters, let us not stand apart but enter the Father’s house, and without envy, judgment, or hypocrisy, let us share in the joy of every soul that, like we once did, has returned to the Heavenly Father. Amen.