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

 

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

By St. John of Kronstadt

(Delivered on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, 1896)

“Not one of those men who were invited will taste My supper. For many are called, but few are chosen” (Luke 14:24).

In the Gospel of Luke read today, the Lord pronounced a stern, righteous sentence on those who were called and did not come, through negligence and laziness, to the Great Supper prepared by the Creator and Righteous Judge of the whole world and to be revealed at the end of this age. "Not one of those men who were invited will taste My supper. For many are called, but few are chosen." Listen, beloved brothers and sisters: by these called to the Supper we are also meant, for we too were called to it by the Lord from the time we were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, having previously renounced the devil and his angels and all his service and all his pride. This Great Supper, or dinner, is the Kingdom of Heaven, prepared for all who are faithful and love God and keep His commandments.

Let us pay attention to the reasons why those invited did not come. One said to the messenger: "I have bought a piece of land, and I must go and see it; I beg you to excuse me." Another said: "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them; I beg you to excuse me." The third said: "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come" (Luke 14:16–24). From the words cited it is clear as day that those invited to the supper by the master of the house, i.e. the Lord, renounced it through an inexcusable, unreasonable passion for earthly, temporary goods and for their impassioned, corruptible flesh, and through neglect of the immortal soul, created in the image of God, which the Creator and Lord so loved that He Himself came to earth to seek it, being lost, and He Himself redeemed it with His sufferings and death and took it on His shoulders in order to lead it to the heavenly Father.

Why will not one of those invited partake of the Lord's Supper and enter the eternal kingdom? Because none of those invited and those who refused prepared themselves, did not educate themselves for it, did not develop spiritual taste, did not acquire spiritual clothing, were alien to every virtue, naked, ugly, because of the multitude of sins. And "what fellowship is there between light and darkness, between righteousness and lawlessness" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14 )? None. Those invited to the Supper, through unforgivable unbelief, inattention, ingratitude to the one who invited them, worked all their lives only for the corruptible body, for the sinful flesh and its passions, for its enjoyment, and did nothing for the immortal soul - they were not cleansed by repentance, did not care about cutting off their passions, suppressing vices and sinful inclinations, and so they died in their impurities, in their alienation from God. How can they partake of the blessings of the spiritual Supper? They cannot, they are incapable; if they were to be led into paradise even for a moment, it would be extremely difficult for them there, unbearable, blinding because of their sinfulness, earthliness, coarseness, impurity; and they themselves would condemn themselves to hell, to their own kind, to the stinking and fiery prison prepared for sinners. Such is the lot of unrepentant sinners, such is the end of human passions.

How did the saints value the Lord's calling for the Great Supper? With what zeal did they follow the voice of the Caller? How did they prepare? How did they struggle? What example did they show us? How do they pray to the Lord for us, that He would grant us a place with them and deliver us from the charm of this world and its vain pleasures, that He would arouse us to repentance, correction, and give us zeal for all feats of virtue?

Let us all prepare for the Great Supper of the Kingdom of Heaven; let us cast aside laziness and negligence, let us mortify the passions of the flesh that hinder us from living for the Lord and for the immortal soul, from loving God and our neighbor. For in holy love is the whole law. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.