The Lord's Entry into Jerusalem:
Teaching 4
(Days of God's Visitation to His People)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Teaching 4
(Days of God's Visitation to His People)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. Let us pay attention, brethren, to the following words of the Lord, whose triumphant entry into Jerusalem we celebrate today. When the Lord triumphantly entered Jerusalem, then approaching the holy city, “He saw the city and wept over it, saying,... you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43-44).
II. Let us, brethren, pay attention to these words of our Lord. From them we see that there are special days of visitation by God for people, which they must use as a means of their salvation.
What are these days of visitation? When and how do they happen? It is difficult to give completely definite answers to all this: for, firstly, each person is led by the Providence of God along his own path; on the other hand, with the grace of God everything can serve as a means of awakening us from the sleep of sin. It is enough therefore to note that the soul at this time of visitation itself feels the unusualness of its position, sees itself between heaven and hell, as if in the middle; it hears a voice commanding to leave the path of lawlessness, and is ready for everything that faith and conscience require.
a) Among such days of God's visitation to a sinner is, firstly, the day of confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. In confession we appear each time, even before our death, before the judgment of God Himself and hear from the lips of the minister of the altar such a sentence by which our fate is decided, and whose power is recognized and confirmed in heaven. What an important and sacred hour for us is therefore the hour of our confession! And in the Mystery of Communion the Hypostatic Word Himself appears before us each time, under the form of bread and wine, enters into us and unites with us for our sanctification. Is it possible to have a greater sign of the grace and closeness of the Savior to us, and, consequently, is it possible to wish for a better moment for changing one's life?
b) The days of special visitation by God should include serious illnesses, when the sinner, having descended to the gates of death, and for him the same as the gates of hell, one might say, already sees with his own eyes the abyss of hell that awaits him for his sins and impenitence. Having risen from the bed of such an illness, many completely change their lives, turn to God and the Church, become true Christians; and others, alas! and having promised the Lord their correction, then return back and sink into even greater carnal indulgence and wickedness.
c) Other cases, in which our life, honor, or property are exposed to obvious danger, are exposed to the point that we lose hope of salvation, should also be considered days of special visitation from God. In such cases, the most sensual and inveterate sinners turn to God with prayer, pronounce vows of repentance; and Providence often deflects the danger, and in such a way that the saved one himself feels it, and recognizes the finger of God upon himself. But this feeling, this recognition does not always produce the saving effect upon the sinner that one should expect, so that, with the passage of time, many forget both the danger and their vows, and rush back to their former sins and iniquities!
d) The day of a special visitation from God also happens to be the death, especially a sudden one, of people with whom, in one way or another, our very existence was closely connected. Here, having met death, seeing the open grave of a brother or friend, a spouse or daughter, again the most hardened sinner feels within himself an awakening of conscience, realizes that in vain he thinks to find and establish his happiness on earth, that it is necessary to prepare for another world. All this ends in some with a firm determination to completely change their morals and behavior.
d) Particularly joyful events in life should also be pointed out as days of special visitations of grace. When the heart expands with joy, then the gaze involuntarily rises upward - to heaven. Filled with self-satisfaction, a person feels around himself as if a certain breath of the spirit of grace and generosity, and the conscience, more or less clearly, but always reminds a person of the need to be kind in order to preserve the mercy of God.
III. In all these and similar cases, with all justice one can address to the sinner the words of the Savior to Jerusalem: O if you had understood the time of your visitation!
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
