WEBVTT 00:00:02.089 --> 00:00:06.009 Glory to Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, 00:00:06.009 --> 00:00:11.289 and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. My goodness. 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:19.050 What an amazing parable and story. And how it 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:24.510 gives me anxiety to have to say anything about 00:00:24.510 --> 00:00:30.300 this at all. Well, let's say this. In chapter 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:35.259 15 of the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus tells three 00:00:35.259 --> 00:00:44.880 parables. Each one is a story about the joy and 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:50.240 the celebration of finding something lost. The 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:53.100 shepherd goes out in search of his lost sheep. 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:57.799 The housewife with her collection of coins. Imagine, 00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:02.179 you had $100, $1 ,000 in $100 bills. You came 00:01:02.179 --> 00:01:05.760 back from the bank, $100 bill was missing. You'd 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.719 be looking, and when you found it, it would be 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:12.939 as if this amazing thing. Both had happiness. 00:01:13.340 --> 00:01:16.939 Both called their friends to come and rejoice 00:01:16.939 --> 00:01:20.140 and have a celebration with them for the finding 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:24.180 of the coin and the lost sheep. And the climax... 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:30.340 of chapter 15, our parable today, the father 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:35.920 and the lost son. And what celebration then follows? 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:39.900 St. Luke tells us why it is Jesus is telling 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:43.659 these parables about the lost sheep and the lost 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:46.659 coin and the lost son. Yes, we call it the prodigal 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:49.140 son, but really it's about the lost son and the 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:53.450 father. St. Luke tells us why Jesus is telling 00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:57.109 us these parables and why there was such rejoicing. 00:01:57.849 --> 00:02:01.510 Listen to what St. Luke says. Then drew near 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:04.569 unto Jesus all the publicans and the sinners 00:02:04.569 --> 00:02:09.270 to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:13.229 murmured, grumbled, saying, This man, Jesus, 00:02:13.610 --> 00:02:19.449 receives sinners and eats with them. What's their 00:02:19.449 --> 00:02:22.770 problem? Why are they complaining about this? 00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:26.389 Is it just that they see them as unclean? No, 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:30.409 no, there's something much more there. Try to 00:02:30.409 --> 00:02:32.770 grasp this, because this is outside our understanding 00:02:32.770 --> 00:02:37.490 completely. The Pharisees and the religious leaders 00:02:37.490 --> 00:02:40.710 of the day believed that the Messiah would only 00:02:40.710 --> 00:02:43.909 come and God's kingdom would only be established 00:02:43.909 --> 00:02:47.770 and the Romans destroyed only when the law of 00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:53.199 Moses was... perfectly kept by every one of those 00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:00.280 Jews. And the sinners, they're the problem. Sinners 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:04.000 of all types were stopping good things from coming. 00:03:04.020 --> 00:03:12.400 The Messiah would not come until perfection was 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.659 there. And they felt that Jesus didn't take sin 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:19.810 very seriously. He didn't understand this principle, 00:03:19.990 --> 00:03:23.830 they felt. And he ate with them, and he received 00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:27.189 them, and he spoke with them, and he ministered 00:03:27.189 --> 00:03:31.789 unto them, and he healed them. Ironic, is that 00:03:31.789 --> 00:03:36.550 the right word? That the Messiah himself was 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:41.930 with them. St. Paul puts it this way, for when 00:03:41.930 --> 00:03:46.340 we were still without strength. In due time, 00:03:46.419 --> 00:03:51.699 Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous 00:03:51.699 --> 00:03:54.159 man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, 00:03:54.219 --> 00:03:57.060 someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:00.580 his own love toward us in that while we were 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:05.180 still sinners, Christ died for us. So Jesus tells 00:04:05.180 --> 00:04:09.300 this enduring and hopeful and joyful parable 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:13.060 about the lost, the found, and the rejoicing 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:16.300 and the love of God. This is important as we 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:18.740 come towards Lent, to remember what repentance 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:22.860 is about. The parable starts with the Father's 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:28.420 house. And the house means what? The life of 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:33.259 God. It means God's love. It means blessings 00:04:33.259 --> 00:04:36.060 beyond counting. It means the Lord is merciful 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:39.959 and compassionate along suffering and forgets 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:43.709 our sins. The Father's house is his... unending 00:04:43.709 --> 00:04:47.709 grace. The father's house is the knowledge, an 00:04:47.709 --> 00:04:54.310 intimate knowledge of God. Joy, goodness, truth, 00:04:54.470 --> 00:04:58.230 mercy from him. The younger son didn't notice 00:04:58.230 --> 00:05:02.870 these things at all. And he demands his inheritance. 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:05.350 You don't get your inheritance until you die. 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:08.750 So what he's really saying is, listen old man. 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:12.389 Give me my inheritance. I'm tired of waiting 00:05:12.389 --> 00:05:14.649 for you to die so I can get the money that's 00:05:14.649 --> 00:05:17.870 coming to me. Give it to me and I'll be out of 00:05:17.870 --> 00:05:23.649 here. And off he goes. And when the good times 00:05:23.649 --> 00:05:27.110 have ended, as they always do, and the money 00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:30.290 is gone and the friends go away too, the son 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:33.910 realized not just that he was desperately lonely. 00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:40.019 The gospel says a far country. Far, in every 00:05:40.019 --> 00:05:44.660 way possible. He would even eat the pig slop. 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:48.839 He was so hungry. Living with pigs, which for 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:51.720 a Jew, this indicates for us that he really hit 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:56.759 rock bottom. He was mostly spiritually starving. 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:04.379 It was then that the miracle happened. He came 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:10.230 to himself. He came to himself. He circled back, 00:06:10.430 --> 00:06:14.230 which is the first step in repentance, realizing 00:06:14.230 --> 00:06:19.089 how far we are from God. His conscience was alive. 00:06:19.310 --> 00:06:21.930 God gave him that. He knew he was living in a 00:06:21.930 --> 00:06:26.949 strange land where the inhabitants, the pig herders, 00:06:26.990 --> 00:06:33.509 think that pig life is normal life. Pigs are 00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:37.629 a nasty, unclean animal for the Jews. And the 00:06:37.629 --> 00:06:41.089 father is waiting for him when the son says, 00:06:41.290 --> 00:06:45.769 after he remembers the father's house, he then 00:06:45.769 --> 00:06:51.350 says, I will arise and go to my father's house. 00:06:52.490 --> 00:06:56.649 The father is waiting for him. No questions asked. 00:06:57.790 --> 00:07:04.910 Nothing. No recriminations. No anger. There's 00:07:04.910 --> 00:07:07.550 a hymn from the Canon of St. Andrew. It's a particularly 00:07:07.550 --> 00:07:12.569 hymn I love so much. It says this, Though I have 00:07:12.569 --> 00:07:17.350 sinned, O Savior, I know that Thou art full of 00:07:17.350 --> 00:07:21.110 lovingkindness. Thou dost chastise with mercy, 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:25.649 and art fervent in compassion. Thou dost see 00:07:25.649 --> 00:07:28.750 me weeping, and dost run to meet me, like the 00:07:28.750 --> 00:07:34.819 Father calling back the prodigal son. So here's 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:37.480 the question I pose to myself in this story, 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:42.379 and I have to face the painful truth of this 00:07:42.379 --> 00:07:46.980 son's attitude in leaving home what it means 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:54.959 for me. If the Father's house, God himself, is 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.899 truth, goodness, comfort in the Holy Spirit, 00:07:59.689 --> 00:08:03.089 Joy and kindness and intimacy with Jesus Christ. 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:10.709 If God loves me 100%, no strings attached. If 00:08:10.709 --> 00:08:14.009 that's what the Church of Christ is, this place 00:08:14.009 --> 00:08:18.089 of transfiguration and God's presence and communion 00:08:18.089 --> 00:08:21.870 with God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 00:08:22.029 --> 00:08:25.250 then I have to ask myself this painful question. 00:08:27.870 --> 00:08:34.970 Why? Why am I so far from any of that glory and 00:08:34.970 --> 00:08:40.970 holiness and intimacy? Why do I sin? Why do I 00:08:40.970 --> 00:08:43.370 turn away from Christ? This story is not just 00:08:43.370 --> 00:08:48.549 about the decadent living of a crazy young man 00:08:48.549 --> 00:08:52.769 who wastes it all with prostitutes. If that was 00:08:52.769 --> 00:08:56.490 the case, why would we hear it today? Because 00:08:56.490 --> 00:09:00.870 I trust none of you are living that way. This 00:09:00.870 --> 00:09:02.970 is a message for us to understand the meaning 00:09:02.970 --> 00:09:08.850 of repentance. Realization. Self -knowledge. 00:09:10.450 --> 00:09:14.889 How could I have done that, we say. How could 00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:17.629 I have fallen into that sin? Why could I not 00:09:17.629 --> 00:09:23.389 see that? Why leave the house, the garden of 00:09:23.389 --> 00:09:27.210 paradise? This is the story of the fall of Adam 00:09:27.210 --> 00:09:31.120 and Eve. This is just the whole story. How could 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.919 I squander my spiritual inheritance and some 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:37.919 perhaps even leave the church entirely? Why? 00:09:39.820 --> 00:09:44.220 Maybe we just don't need God. We're fine as we 00:09:44.220 --> 00:09:50.039 are. We learn to live without him. We learn to 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:53.860 live that perhaps Sunday is here. The rest of 00:09:53.860 --> 00:10:02.830 my time, I do okay without him. Maybe it's because 00:10:02.830 --> 00:10:06.029 I don't venture very deeply into that struggle 00:10:06.029 --> 00:10:08.789 which is ahead, which is what Lent is about, 00:10:08.950 --> 00:10:16.629 that struggle to learn to be with him, to find 00:10:16.629 --> 00:10:22.250 myself ready to say, it is not I who live, but 00:10:22.250 --> 00:10:27.049 Christ who lives in me. O my Creator and my Lord, 00:10:27.269 --> 00:10:31.190 how I have devalued you. to be something that 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:36.330 I can call upon now and then. Father Alexander 00:10:36.330 --> 00:10:40.629 Schmemann shifts our focus now. He tells us what 00:10:40.629 --> 00:10:43.889 this parable is about and how we need personally 00:10:43.889 --> 00:10:46.929 to approach it if we are going to gain anything 00:10:46.929 --> 00:10:50.929 from it besides just a sentimental story. He 00:10:50.929 --> 00:10:53.590 says, often we overlook something essential in 00:10:53.590 --> 00:10:56.169 repentance, a relationship with Christ. This 00:10:56.169 --> 00:11:00.720 something... is precisely the feeling of alienation 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:05.299 from God, from the joy of communion with him, 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:09.220 from the real life as created and given by God. 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:14.100 It's easy to confess, I have not fasted on prescribed 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:20.740 days, I miss my prayers, or I got angry. It's 00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:23.509 quite a different thing, however, he says, to 00:11:23.509 --> 00:11:26.090 realize suddenly that I've defiled and lost my 00:11:26.090 --> 00:11:28.870 spiritual beauty and that I am far away from 00:11:28.870 --> 00:11:32.090 my real home, my real life, that something precious 00:11:32.090 --> 00:11:35.830 and pure and beautiful has been hopelessly broken. 00:11:38.490 --> 00:11:43.129 Any soul, says Elder Emilinos, can go to confession, 00:11:43.409 --> 00:11:48.730 can read spiritual books, can pray much, shed 00:11:48.730 --> 00:11:54.990 copious tears. What does it mean to be close 00:11:54.990 --> 00:11:59.470 to God? asked the elder. Can you be close to 00:11:59.470 --> 00:12:03.230 an icon and not be moved to venerate it? Any 00:12:03.230 --> 00:12:06.289 child knows that truth. Can you be close to a 00:12:06.289 --> 00:12:08.710 fire and not be warmed? Can you be close to the 00:12:08.710 --> 00:12:13.529 light and not be illumined? Of course not. Then 00:12:13.529 --> 00:12:16.269 how can you be close to God, he says, and not 00:12:16.269 --> 00:12:21.710 become God -like? How rich we are in Christ, 00:12:21.710 --> 00:12:25.629 brothers and sisters. Last week, humility and 00:12:25.629 --> 00:12:29.610 prayer. This week, the steps of transformation 00:12:29.610 --> 00:12:32.730 of repentance, beginning with honest assessment 00:12:32.730 --> 00:12:36.389 of our alienation and our exile from God, and 00:12:36.389 --> 00:12:39.570 then the coming to self -knowledge, and then 00:12:39.570 --> 00:12:43.370 saying, I will arise and return to my Father. 00:12:43.990 --> 00:12:47.809 Let us meditate on this parable, rereading it 00:12:47.809 --> 00:12:51.389 every day this week, to understand our place 00:12:51.389 --> 00:12:55.250 in it and the glory that God has given.