Sermon on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost [2011]

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

in the 12th sunday after Pentecost, the rich young searchs to know which is the act that makes you inherit eternal life. He wanted to know what is the good which brings immortality.

But the Lord led him at his true searching, because He said to him, that he needed a new life and not only of some well.

And this new life, which is a divine life, has God in the foreground, Who changes the meaning of our relations in a profound mode. Because the orthodox life is the life itself with God, Who is the Good par excellence.

Therefore, the Lord asks the young man not to separate the good from God, for He is the true Good and all good comes from Him. Do not separate the good from life. For the good is just the essence of life, because God is the foundation of creation.

And the life with God is not just a good deed or more…but a life with God.

Here is the fundamental difference: in consequence!

He who lives with God does not quantify his deeds, does not want to highlight because of them, wants to be with God now and forever. Just like an honest man. Because nothing is more valuable and better than Himself.

Nothing gives us life. The real life is the life with God, into His grace.

Therefore in the 17th verse, the Lord tells the young that only God is the Good.  And the eternal life we receive from God because we are in relation with Him and not because we do some good works separated from Him.

That is, morality is not worthing anything without theology, without the relation with God, without knowing and worshiping Him. Only if our good works are theological and come from His love and from the obedience to Him, they bring us into intimacy with Him, and namely in the eternal life.

For those who want to be just charitable, the Lord says that’s not enough. And we need the relation with God and with people to be alive. Because only the relation of communion is a full expression of rich, holy, life.

So the answer is: we need the real relations with God and with people to be heirs of eternal life.

This is the motive for the wealth seemed more important than the relation. And so the rich can do the impossible, to pass through the eye of a needle, which is to make wealth a door to the Kingdom.

The rich can be saved! But that one whose properties and assets are not a wall between God and him. And each of us must do the impossible, the divine impossible: to loosen us all to Him.

Earlier than or later we will follow all His will, because we pass from this life to eternity. But the following of Christ means to entry in relation with Him, that let us learn from Him the whole truth of divine life.

And at first it seems impossible, difficult, very difficult. The orthodox ecclesial life, is a hard life, an ascetic one. And if you do not understand that all the pains and joys are for your own good you suffer a lot.

But if you have one Father, to guide you step by step, you better understand how much knowledge is in Scripture, in the Holy Fathers, in prayers, in fasting, in many and difficult office, in obedience.

In every day, in the Church, we learn that we can do the impossible. Yes, the impossible to always be others!

Then, at the beginning of the ecclesiastical year 2011-2012, I wish you all joy and peace and all blessings! God fills us with His love mercy, now and ever. Amen!

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