By Father Andrew Lemeshonok
Christ is
Risen! Pascha is ongoing, and we continue fighting for joy and hope, which we
can hear in these words: “Christ is Risen!” We want to make sure in this truth
about God and that He has defeated death. If we are with God then we can
prevail over our sick, lame, deaf, blind and foolish nature, and live with God
forever.
The Lord
calls upon us to lead a spiritual way of life - Let us lift up our hearts. However, we were born on this earth; have a hard time
perceiving anything spiritual! In the Gospel, the Samaritan woman talks about
the water, about the well and her thirst that she wants to quench, while the
Lord talks about the water, which resurrects the person and lets us enter
eternal life. The disciples go for food, they want to feed their Teacher. But
the Lord offers them a different kind of food. Which one? This is My Body, and
this is My Blood (referred to Matthew 26:26-28). This is a different and
eternal life. It is difficult for us to perceive this for we need to estimate
everything according to the measures of this world. The Lord wants us to be
able to realize the spiritual meaning of what is happening to our life; to
realize what is truly important in our life instead of caring for miniscule and
irrelevant things…
We are
already in the church, we believe and we feel that there we can find the truth
of life, to find something what we cannot find anywhere else in the world. But
we need to make sure in this. We need to come out of the church and look at our
life from a different point of view. We should not be guided by the earthly
laws, but begin a new life. Then all the questions will disappear. When we mix
spiritual, soulful and corporal things together, then many questions arise and
we can get confused. This is why we need
to trust God and accept what He gives us today. We should look for a spiritual
sense in everything, instead of a secular one. We should tear ourselves away
from our “justice”, our talents and gifts, if they disrupt us from following
Christ. A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. It is hard
not because of his money. Money is not the case. The thing is, a man is simply
afraid of losing what he has. A man feels that he is worth something and
because of this he loses peace.
The rich
one – it is also a man who arrogates his talents to himself, and does not use
it for the Glory of God. Father Sergius, our icon painter says that sometimes
it happens like this: “A person is developing professionally, he is working
better and better, but at the same time he is getting worse inside…” A person
becomes self-confident. However, if a person knows he is guilty, if nothing
works out, if he understands that he cannot do anything, then he looks at this
world and his neighbors in a different way. He does not disdain them.
If a
person is working for the Glory of God, then God can give everything.
Nevertheless, should a person arrogate his achievements to himself and say that
he is one and only, he will lose everything.
What
truth do we find in the church? Ask, and it shall be given to you (Matthew
7:7). What do we want? We want to have a nice week; we want everything to be
good and things to work out. But, is this good for our salvation? We should
think about what is important. Time will pass, and the earthly picture will
change. The gardens are blooming now, but we look forward and think, “The
leaves will fall soon, winter will come...” Life is rotating repeatedly until
we suddenly stop – we are on our deathbed. The holy fathers say, “Remember
about death and thus you will not sin”. When you leave this earth, what will
you take? What will you need on your last day? Which gifts, which property?
There will be nothing more than God, the grace of the Holy Spirit and hope and
love towards your neighbor in your heart. This is what we tragically lack
today. This is why a person should not be jealous of a wealthy person. For a
true Christian, money does not mean anything, you cannot take it with you to
Eternity!
When you
can see life in a person’s eyes – it is truly beautiful, when a person has –
that is also beautiful, you cannot buy that for any money in the world. This is
what we need to strive towards, real values and not the fake ones.
This
world often offers us fakes, “Look, you need this, buy that!” One sister told
me, “I had a very nice car then I started working in church and now I have a bad
car… Things are
not working out for me, everything is bad, everything is falling apart… What has God given me?” In reality, she
received everything that she could have received! To see that all cars
eventually break down, that sooner or later clothing will wear out, that health
will also get worse with time, and that one should not have hope in human
strength – everything earthly will eventually end up in the graveyard of time.
A person need to think about what is most important – to live with God and hold
on to that life with hands, feet and teeth. Today like this, and then tomorrow
perhaps a person may not have anything to eat at all. Yet, we know that person
will not live with one bread alone (referred to Matthew 4:4). God will save those who trust Him and live
with Him.
We must
also think about the last words we will say on our deathbed, the last thoughts,
and our last heartbeat.
God looks
at the inner person, at his state of mind, how the person treat those around
him. So if you what to know how you are doing, ask the people that you live
with. They will tell you the truth about you: who you are and what you are
worth. Anyone can bow and close their eyes in church but it is truly Godly to
love the people that reproach us especially when we do not deserve it.
May the
Lord help us accept everything that is given to us today without complaining,
without depression but with thanksgiving and an understanding that the
challenges of life and temptations help a person form and polish a person’s
soul. We need to ask God what is good and what is bad, what truly draws us
closer to him and what does not.
We need
to change our life, change our approach towards others. We should not act up
and complain or make life difficult for others. Instead we need to make sure we
do not hurt anyone, so that people will only feel the good from us and so that
people would joyfully await us.
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