In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

Old Farm.

Dear brothers and sisters! Today we have heard a short parable that the Lord told to His disciples. God sent to one person a plentiful harvest. The farmer was delighted and thought: “What am I to do with this wealth, for I do not have enough space to store it? I will, probably, break my old barn and build a new one that would accommodate all this wealth. And I will say to myself: “My soul, you have a lot of goods, therefore, drink, eat, and be merry…” And God said to him: “Oh, thou, a foolish person! On this night your soul will be taken away from you. And to whom then will you leave all your possessions?”

There are two godless, and, therefore, insane ideas that lie in the foundation of our modern civilization. The first one is the congenial attitude towards accumulating wealth and money. The second one is the desire for pleasures, in which we want to drown our lives…

In the third Chapter of the Apocalypse the angel said very precisely on the essence of our civilization, which is almost totally devoid of spiritual values, and in which people try to live without God: “…Thou sayest, “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,” and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked”(Revelation 3: 17).

The Biblical teaching stands as an alternative to these godless ideas. Christianity summons to distinguish and contrast the two types of wealth: the spiritual one that is inside us, and the material one, which is outside. The New Testament contemplates on these types of wealth, looking at our life in spiritual perspective as at the path towards the Kingdom of Heaven: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal;but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6: 19-21).  Nobody can retain earthly treasures forever. We should regard earthly riches in accordance with the words of the prophet David: “If riches increase, set not your heart upon them” (Ps. 62: 10). An insane rich person is not the one who has a lot, but the one who is foolishly attached to any wealth – large or small. We should always remind to ourselves that a person can use his accumulated wealth for either the benefit, or the destruction of his soul. The one who collects treasures only for himself, in reality constantly robs himself. A true Christian rather should spend his wealth on charity and on helping others.

The one who gives away and shares with others the treasures that God had given to him, who lavishly dispenses the warmth of his own soul, who sacrifices his time and strength, who donates his money, as a result, becomes not poorer, but “richer in God.” In replacement of the seemingly lost wealth, he then receives from God and the people something that no one can buy for any amount of money: love, devotion and compassion in this life and, after departing from this world, – the life eternal. These are the true, and not devious, treasures.

Today’s parable reveals one of the important laws of the spiritual life: in order to fill up the volume of our soul with something new and more perfect, it is necessary to destroy its former sinful content. If a rich man conducts a pious life in order to increase his spiritual gifts, God grants him spiritual wealth. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, brings us love, peace, patience, goodness, modesty, temperance. But it turns out that a person cannot accept these spiritual gifts before ruining his former “old barns” and starting to change his life and cleanse himself from his former impurities.

Through abstinence from the sinful “sweet” life a true Christ-believer attains sanctification (holiness), and is granted the reception of the spiritual gifts. When a person destroys his “old barns”, he becomes new and different, making himself spiritually cleverer by going through internal rejuvenation. Gradually the spiritual wealth becomes dominant in his life.

In this period of Advent we have to work hard in order to rebuild ourselves and become well prepared for the Nativity of the Divine Infant, and in order to make our souls be capable for accommodating the most important and most expensive of all treasures – our Lord Jesus Christ. Only He is our eternal Blessing and we have to give Him a place in our lives! He must be born and grow up in our hearts, and He alone can fill us with His grace and bliss!

Today, after the Liturgy, we also will prayerfully commemorate the children from Chipman, who died in a bus accident on the way to school in Lamont in November, 1960. At that time a school bus, carrying students, was struck by a train, which resulted in death of 17 kids (15 girls and two boys). This terrible accident teaches us to be more attentive to our souls and to obey the human and spiritual laws, and, first of all, the Commandments of God, Our Lord, in order to avoid any terrible tragedy, that might occur otherwise on our way to the Kingdom of God.

May the memory of the perished children be eternal! Amen.