By St. Justin Popovich
Behold the Gospel which concerns the mind and body of each of us. It is the Gospel of loving-kindness. It is the Savior’s wonderful parable, in which he depicts the whole of our life. Mine, yours, that of every human being on the face of the earth. Today’s Gospel concerns all of us. All of us.
How marvelous we are! These divine treasures here on earth. Look at our body, the eye, the ear, the tongue. What amazing wealth. The eye. Is there anything more wondrous that we could possibly conceive in this world? And yet, this eye was created by the Lord, as was the soul and body. The soul, in fact, is entirely from heaven. What riches! The body. An amazing gem which has been given to you for eternity, not just for this fleeting life on earth. And the soul, also committed to eternity. Listen to what Saint Paul preaches today: "The body is for the Lord" (1 Cor. 6:13). The Lord made the human body for eternal life, for eternal righteousness and eternal love; both body and soul. All of these are gifts from God, sublime, great, abundant and - most importantly - immortal and eternal.
But what have we people done with these gifts? What have we built upon them? We’ve surrendered our body to pleasures and to the passions of this world; and have allowed our soul to become prey to unclean thoughts, impure designs and corrupt pleasures. Through our sins, our soul and body have both become estranged from God, we’ve abandoned God, we’ve "departed into a distant land." Whose is this "distant land"?
You have heard how the prodigal son herded swine. In the land of the devil. In the land where the devil has dominion over people, through their passions, through their sins. He keeps them in terrible derangement, in delirium and insanity.
So what about sin? Every sin is madness. Every person will always be a part of this insanity until they encounter the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we will meet him through repentance.
You’ve heard how the prodigal said: "How many employees of my father have more bread than enough, while I’m wasting away from hunger in this foreign and far-off land? Let me get up and go back to my father." So he arose and went back to his father. And his heavenly Father, God our merciful Lord, "saw him from afar and had mercy. He ran to him and fell on his neck, kissing him profusely." The son, meanwhile, sobbed: "Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and towards you. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son." I’ve sinned against heaven and all the stars. I’ve polluted everything with the suppuration of my passions and I’ve blackened everything with the darkness of my desires. "I have sinned against you." When I left you, who did I attach myself to? Who was I close to? Whose swine was I looking after? The devil’s! I demonized my own soul, which you’d given me to make holy and immortal. I defiled my body, put my body to death, reduced my body to utter wretchedness.
The prodigal was actually beside himself in the madness, the pleasures, and passions of this world. When he came to his senses, through repentance, he ran to his father, who embraced and kissed him. The son hadn’t yet finished his confession, he hadn’t yet expressed his wish that he be received as an employee, before his father told his servants to bring the best clothing for him to wear; a ring to put on his finger; shoes for his feet; the fatted calf to be slaughtered, so that they might eat and rejoice. Why did the heavens rejoice? Why did God rejoice in heaven? Why did the angels rejoice? To whom does the Lord say: "Let us rejoice"? To the angels!
The man who was lost in his sins remembered that he was the brother of the angels and hastened to the heavens. "I have sinned against heaven and before you." I have sinned against the angels and the archangels. I demonized my soul. I cast myself into the herd of swine, into the tumult of the passions. And now I’m torn to pieces, I’m in tatters. Soul and body in tatters. Reduced to complete wretchedness.
So what is repentance? The Lord ran out to meet his penitent son. He embraced him, kissed him and the whole of heaven rejoiced. All the angels were overjoyed. In the wonderful reading from the Savior’s parable, it says: "And they began to rejoice." Why are you rejoicing, holy angels and archangels? You, who are constantly grieving over this earthly world, seeing us, your own fallen brothers and sisters, how we are wallowing in sins and pleasures, the passions and various deaths of this world, why are you rejoicing? "We are rejoicing over the resurrection, the return to life of our dead brother, who was dead and now has returned to life." The prodigal son was dead when he was far from God, the source of Life, when he was estranged from heaven. Behold, the resurrection of the dead (the return of the prodigal) is clear to the eyes of all the heavenly powers. This is why these heavenly powers are rejoicing: "For he was lost and now is found." Indeed, when people are lost in sin and the passions, they lose themselves, that is they have no self-awareness, they are beside themselves.
The Savior says: "He came to himself." The man recovered when he remembered to whom he belonged: to God. To whom did his body belong? To God. His soul also belonged to God. They were all gifts, granted by God. To whom do I belong, as a person? To God, entirely to God. My body is glorified by God. In today’s Epistle reading, Saint Paul says this is why God created it. The body is for the Lord; the soul is for the Lord. We glorify the Lord with our body and soul. The one belongs to God and so does the other. Don’t think anything is yours, because it isn’t. It all belongs eternally to God. Just as you belong eternally to God. But only when you realize it.
So what about sin? The devil doesn’t allow us to feel that we are children of God. The devil exercises authority over the heart and doesn’t let us think about God, or remember that we are God’s children, that we are rich beyond the dreams of avarice. We are kin to the holy angels. The devil casts a pall over all this, removes it from us, distorts it and gives us false pleasures through sins. Saint Paul is right when he says to the holy Bishop Titus, his disciple: "For we, too, were once foolish" (Titus 3:3). See what he says: "We were once subject to various desires and passions, and then we were mad and foolish."
The Lord doesn’t want to resurrect you from your death by force, nor to snatch you from sin. You have to be the one who says first: "Lord, this sin is tormenting me. I don’t want it, but it’s got a hold over me. Set me free." Then the miracle occurs. Always. The Lord never leaves a prayer unanswered, even if it comes from the greatest sinner. There is no terrible sin for people who are vigilant over their conscience, over their life. People know that, after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world, there is no sin from which he is unable to liberate us. There is no sin that we cannot defeat, there is no sin that we cannot get rid of. The Lord gives the strength. Just make a start. Just cry out, like the prodigal son: "Father I have sinned against heaven and towards you." When you sin, you sin not only against God, but against all the heavenly beings and all the earthly ones, as well. You sin against the birds, you sin against the flowers, the trees. You sin against all living things. Sin is really terrible, if you don’t repent. It’s so bad that it kills and casts people into a hundred deaths. It can throw you into the arms of the devil and the most terrible eternal punishment. Don’t doubt it. This is why God came into the world: to exterminate the dread dragon which is known as sin. The Lord Jesus Christ came as God and a human being and gave us the means to annihilate sin, all sin. He created his Church on earth and gave it all the heavenly powers so that we can overcome all the sins, all the deaths that are within us and around us.
The Lord gave us the most wonderful mysteries: holy baptism, holy communion, and these destroy sin. He gave us marvelous virtues: faith, hope, love, prayer, fasting, meekness and all the other Gospel virtues. This is why Christians in this world don’t know despair.
May our good God awaken all the atheists, all the non-believers. May he strike them with the bolt of heavenly mercy. A lightning-strike of mercy in their conscience, in their soul. May each of them wake up and make their way to their home in the heavens, to the celestial table where they will sit among their brethren, the angels. May they live there with eternal divine truth, eternal divine justice and all the eternal, heavenly joys.
Lord, we thank you for this holy Gospel. We thank you for these glad tidings. Because you made us so that we can overcome all sin and every devil. To you be glory and thanksgiving, always, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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