Save as PDFIn the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
Today’s Gospel tells us the Lord’s parable about a wedding feast. This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a wedding which the Heavenly Father gives to his Son.
And the Church is the King of Heaven on the earth. And our Divine Service with Liturgy is the Kingdom of Heaven in its power. Here we are standing before Christ Saviour Himself. We have all come to this feast, but each of us has his particular attitude to it. Many are invited – the Lord calls to His Kingdom of heaven not only all of us, but the whole world through the Word of God.
Marriage is joining of two human beings, bodily and spiritually, therefore the Holy Scripture says that a husband and a wife is one flesh. The same joining of Christian soul and Christ takes place at this wedding feast; they are joined not only into one spirit, but in one body. The flesh of Christ dissolves in our body, and His Blood dissolves in our blood. What more abundant grace can we imagine? What can be more desired for a person than such fellowship with Christ? What can be more joyful and abundant? If a person really loves Christ, he will strive here, on the earth, for joining Christ.
The source of our purification is Christ’s Communion Cup. If we take away Christ’s Cup from the church, it will be already not the church because the centre of our spiritual life is this Divine Service – the Holy Communion, thanksgiving. Some people say – “I go to church very seldom, but I pray at home”. Yes, you can pray at home, and it’s good that a person prays at home, but to receive Communion, to join Christ not only spiritually through a prayer, but bodily can only be in the church. The Holy Communion is the most abundant form of fellowship with the Lord, without it there can be neither a prayer nor kind deeds Christian life, but only the illusion of it. Therefore, the aim of our life must be constant receiving the Holy Communion. The Holy Communion is the Kingdom of Heaven. When we receive the Holy Communion, we, thus, ascend to God’s throne and sit at the right hand of the Father. Some people say that they don’t feel it. Yes, you don’t feel because you are dead. When a person loses consciousness, he is also insensitive. When he regains consciousness, he is already in hospital or at home, or somewhere on the road. Thus irrespective of the fact if we feel it or not; this is the fact of spiritual life.
But striving for the Communion we must try to receive it properly. We must examine our soul and see by what we insulted God, what we neglected, how we violate His commandments. We must repent sincerely and begin a new life. If we see any imperfection in ourselves, we must restrain our feelings, get rid of our sin to be worthy ones. We must work to get a wedding garment constantly.
Sometimes it turns out to be formality for us because after the Communion we don’t join Christ, but on the contrary, here on the earth, we receive the Communion but in heaven we don’t receive it, because we aren’t worthy of it. Therefore our spiritual life must, if one can say, follow two directions: we must strive for Christ’s Cup, at any price constantly receive the Holy communion, and at the same time not for a second forget who we are, always remember that we aren’t absolutely worthy of it, and constantly, with all our might, work at our soul, purify it from sin, as far as it is possible for us, so that the Holy Communion wouldn’t be harmful but useful to us. Amen.