WEBVTT

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

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of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

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Today's Sunday is, as we hear in the Gospel,

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the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. And it is that

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time when we are on our journey towards Lent,

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which is our journey towards Pascha. The Prodigal

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Son, of course, is an allegory. It represents

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you and me, and I would say also it represents

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collectively the Church of the New Testament

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and even the Church of the Old Testament. But

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before I get into that, which is our primary

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focus, this is a good Sunday for us to recall

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and to think about. the prodigal sons and the

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prodigal daughters, the prodigal brothers, the

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prodigal sisters, maybe even the prodigal parents

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that we have in our life. And what do I mean

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by that? Our children, our brothers and sisters,

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say, who were raised in the faith, And then they

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just drop out, stop going to church, and even

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sometimes they announce, for whatever reason,

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I don't believe in any of this anymore. How anguishing

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that is for parents. It breaks their hearts.

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It breaks our hearts if a beloved... brother

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or sister stops attending church. Either maybe

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they just reject it all or maybe because they're

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just indifferent. Who knows the reason? But it

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is necessary for us to pray for these prodigal

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sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, whatever

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it might be. The best example I have of that

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is in one of my former parishes. There was a

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woman who prayed earnestly before the icon of

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the Theotokos. And after a while, we got into

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a conversation about that. And she said, you

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know, Father, I've been praying for my son who

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stopped. going to church doesn't show any interest

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in religion. And she prayed daily and then when

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she goes to church prayed before the icon of

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the Theotokos. And you know what happened? He

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came back. The prodigal son returned. He started

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coming to church and the joy that came into that

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mother's heart replaced the anguish. that she

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had before. So this story is an incentive for

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us to pray for those individuals, those loved

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ones in our family that, at least from our perspective,

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should practice their faith a little bit more

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fervently. But of course the main focus is that

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the prodigal son is an allegory. It's a story

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that represents something else. And of course,

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you and I are the prodigal sons. But also in

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an extended sense, the prodigal sons were the

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Old Testamental Hebrew people, the Church of

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the Old Testament, and even collectively us as

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the Christian Church, the Church of the New Testament.

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In Psalm 8, The psalmist meditates on the loftiness

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of our status as human beings created by God.

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He says, what is man that thou art mindful of

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him, and the son of man that thou dost care for

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him? By the way, that expression, son of man,

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in Hebrew theology, evolves into a messianic

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title, which is how it's used in the prophecy

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of Daniel. And especially in St. Mark's Gospel,

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this is preeminently a title for Jesus, Son of

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Man. Son of God and Son of Man are used interchangeably

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in the Gospels. But this term, at least in Psalm

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8, refers to the dignity of us as human beings

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created by God. What is man that thou art mindful

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of him, and the son of man that thou dost care

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for him? Yet thou hast made him a little less

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than the angels, and dost crown him with glory

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and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over

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the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things

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under his feet, all sheep and oxen, all... the

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cattle of the fields, the birds of the air, and

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the fish of the sea. Many of the fathers postulate

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that this is what made the devil jealous because

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God created these material beings and bestowed

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upon them such dignity. A couple of the fathers

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even say that's what also provoked the devil's

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jealousy was that it was revealed to him that

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the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity,

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would become a human being, part of this created

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nature which on a certain level is inferior to

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the angelic nature. But of course, the other

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side of that is, we sing in one of our church

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hymns, the mystery which was hidden from everlasting

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and was unknown even by the angels became known

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through you, O Theotokos, referring to the incarnation

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of the Son of God. Be that as it may, the devil

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was jealous of us. This is why he tempted Adam

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and Eve to revolt, to disobey, to turn away from

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God. Adam and Eve to become the first prodigal

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sons, to reject that glorious heritage and status

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which God bestowed upon human beings at the time

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of creation. The Jewish people in the course

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of their history turned away from God as well.

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The Hebrew people, once they were in the promised

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land, began to adopt some of the practices and

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even religious practices of their pagan neighbors.

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And this provoked God's wrath and he permitted

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the Assyrian Babylonians to come and take many

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of the Jewish people into captivity. They were

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deported to Babylon. And there in Babylon, the

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Hebrew people lament their condition with very

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good reason. The church at Matins last night

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or this morning begins to sing Psalm 137, which

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is the lamentation of the Hebrew people separated

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from God, separated from their homeland, Zion

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and Jerusalem, when they were deported to Babylon.

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So Psalm 137 sings and laments. By the waters

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of Babylon, There we sat down and wept when we

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remembered Zion, Jerusalem, the promised land.

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By the willows there we hung up our lyres. How

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shall we sing the Lord a song in a foreign land?

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If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand

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wither. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my

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mouth. If I do not remember you, if I do not

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set Jerusalem above my highest joy. This is the

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anguish of the Hebrew people in exile. This is

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the realization as well that in today's gospel

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the prodigal son had. when he remembered what

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he had and what he lost. This is what we, during

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Lent, meditate on as well. And it becomes for

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us individually and collectively, because the

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whole Lenten period by the 4th century in the

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liturgy of the Church evolves into Lent as we

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have it now. It becomes a time when we as individuals

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joined with the catechumens in preparation for

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baptism. And it is an effort on the church's

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part to make us regain that baptismal holiness

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that we have lost through sin. So let us continue

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on this journey to our true fatherland, our true

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homeland. which is communion with God. It is

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the father who looked so longingly from the rooftop

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to see the return of his son. Not like the grumpy

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son, the older son who was grumpy when the young

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man returned. But the father looked out, waited

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for his son. So our heavenly father looks out.

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for us on our journey back to a deeper realization

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of our status and our holiness as baptized Christians.

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Amen.