Homily One for the Sunday Before Theophany
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight" (Mark 1:3).
When the arrival of a king is expected somewhere, they usually take care to prepare the way for him, that is, to level or clear the road. If the arrival of a king is expected in a city, then they usually sweep the streets, whitewash or illuminate the houses, hang out flags as a sign of greeting to the dear guest; if the arrival of the king is expected in a village, then all its inhabitants dress in clean, festive clothes, go out into the street, and persons chosen from society bring out bread and salt to the high visitor. This is how it happens when meeting an earthly king. But for us, brethren, there lies a meeting of the heavenly King: for Christ, the King of heaven and earth, comes to every Christian soul, to dwell in it and establish in it His kingdom, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of heaven.
What are we to do? How are we to meet such a Visitor to our souls, such a King? "Prepare," says the Prophet, "the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." The spiritual King must prepare a spiritual path. In the East, to meet kings, they straightened and leveled the roads, so that the path for the traveling king would be as straight, smooth and convenient as possible; and now we have railways almost everywhere, and not only for the king, but for all of us, they make the path straight and smooth, as on glass. Let us take this straightness and smoothness of earthly paths as an example and likeness for the spiritual path. We await the coming not to the city, but to our souls of the heavenly King Christ. Let us make the spiritual path straight and smooth, that is, let us remove from our souls every crookedness and roughness of sin: for your paths are crooked, says the Prophet, your ways are crooked and sharp.
How shall we remove them? By sincere repentance of sins, by correction of heart and life and by good deeds. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). Let the man of little faith remove the crookedness of his unbelief or lack of faith and acquire the simple, uncomplicated faith of the saints, or the faith of God, of which the Lord said: "Have faith in God" (Mk. 11:23); let the proud remove his pride and acquire God-loving humility; let the enmity of his brother be abandoned, let him humble himself and live henceforth lovingly, heeding the commandment of the Apostle: "From a pure heart love one another diligently" (1 Pet. 1:22). Let the fornicator wash away his impurity with tears of repentance and let him not return to it henceforth, like a dog to his vomit, and let him live chastely, remembering that our bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 6:19). Let the intemperate and drunkard abandon their intemperance and henceforth be zealous about abstinence: for drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and drunkenness is idolatry. Let the lover of money and the hard-hearted towards the poor abandon his passion for this dear or costly land, as a crooked and rough path, on which he himself is often wounded inwardly, and which blocks the way into his soul to the Heavenly King: for what fellowship has the Merciful with the hard-hearted, the Lover of Mankind with the lover of money, the Heavenly King with the dust of the earth?
And so let the lover of money and the stingy prepare the way into their hearts for the Heavenly King by almsgiving and generosity to the poor. Let us all take away wickedness from our souls and acquire the God-loving simplicity of virtue. This is how one must prepare the way of the Lord; this is how one must make His paths straight! When we thus prepare the way for the Lord, He will undoubtedly come to us and dwell in our hearts, as He Himself promised: "I will dwell in them and walk among them" (2 Cor. 6:16), and the kingdom of heaven will be in us even here on earth, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
