February 14/27, 2005
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Grace and Peace be with you.
 
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 135]. Brethren:
     6  12All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods; but God shall bring to nought both this and these. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14And God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us by His own power. 15Ye know that your bodies are members of Christ, do ye not? Having taken up then the members of Christ, shall I make them members of a harlot? May it not be! 16Or know ye not that he that is joined to the harlot is one body? For, "The two," saith He, "shall be into one flesh [Gen. 2:24]." 17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18Keep on fleeing fornication. Every sin whatsoever a man might do is outside the body, but he who ! committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, Whom ye have from God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye were bought with a price; glorify then God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
 
THE PRODIGAL SON
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 79]. The Lord said this parable:
     15  11"A certain man had two sons. 12"And the younger of them said to the father, 'Father, give to me the portion of the property which falleth to me.' And he divided to them his means of living. 13"And not many days after, the younger son, having gathered all together, went abroad into a distant land, and there scattered his property, living profligately. 14"But after he spent all, there arose a severe famine throughout that land, and he began to be in want. 15"And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that land; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16"And he was longing to fill his belly from the husks, which the swine were eating; and no one was giving to him. 17"But having come to himself, he said, 'How many hired servants of my father abound in loaves, and I am perishing with hun! ger! 18"'I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I sinned against heaven and before thee, 19"'"and am no longer worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants."' 20"And he rose up and went to his father. But when he was yet far away, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and ardently kissed him. 21"And the son said to him, 'Father, I sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no longer worthy to be called thy son.' 22"But the father said to his slaves, 'Bring forth the robe, the chief one, and clothe him, and provide a ring for his hand and sandals for the feet. 23"'And bring the calf, the fattened one, and slay it; and let us eat and be merry; 24"'for this my son was dead and is alive again; and he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry. 25"Now his son, t! he elder one, was in a field; and as he came and drew near to the hous e, he heard music and dancing. 26"And he summoned one of his servants, and began inquiring what these things may be. 27"And he said to him, 'Thy brother is come, and thy father slew the calf, the fattened one, because he received him back safe and sound.' 28"But he was angry and not willing to go in. Then his father went out and besought him. 29"And he answered and said to his father, 'Behold, so many years I am serving thee, and never did I transgress thy commandment, and never didst thou give a kid to me, in order that I might make merry with my friends; 30"'but when this thy son came, the one who devoured thy means of living with harlots, thou didst slay for him the calf, the fattened one.' 31"And he said to him, 'Child, thou art always with me, and all that is mine is thine. 32"'But to make merry and to rejoice was fitting, because this thy brother was dead and! is alive again, and was lost and is found.'"
 
     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
This is the Second of three Sundays that the Church has instituted as a preparation for the Forty-day Fast:
     I.   The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee - Humility and Repentance. (Last week)
     II.  The Sunday of the Prodigal Son - God's Forgiveness of the Penitent. (This week.)
     III. The Sunday of the Last Judgment - A Warning for the Unrepentant and Negligent.
     In our Epistle Reading, St. Paul writes, "Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods, but God shall bring to nought both this and these. … know ye not that he that is joined to the harlot is one body?" I Cor 6:6
     And in our Gospel Reading, "And he took his journey into a far country, and wasted his property with harlots…. And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he was longing to fill his belly from the husks which the swine were eating."    
     The Church has rightly joined the above Epistle with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. For in the Epistle is contained two themes in the Gospel's Parable:
     1. Self-Indulgence
     2. Consorting with Harlots.
     The sin of Self-Indulgence, we all can see ourselves guilty of. But what of consorting with Harlots?
     Yes, this too. For we are guilty of harlotry whenever in our minds we depart into that "far country," leaving behind our true country, The Church.
     The prophet David testifies to this, saying, "They that remove themselves far from thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed everyone the goes a whoring from Thee. But it is good for me to cleave close to God that I may sing Thy praises within the gates of the daughter of Sion." (Psalm 72)
     Even if we appear to be in the Church, we can be separated in spirit. St. Ambrose warns:     
     "What is farther, to be separated by place, or to be divided by a difference of pursuit? The Church is in pursuit of a heavenly country; the estranged, of a worldly country." (Exposition Of the Gospel of St. Luke.)
      The elder brother is an example of this. Though he remained with the Father, nevertheless he was "outside" when the mystic supper took place. For the elder brother had long since also departed into a 'far country,' having a 'difference of pursuit.' But unlike the Prodigal, he never returned. And though he was a son, he depended on the servant, now a son, to learn all that the servant 'had heard from the Father.' (Verses 26-27)
     St. Ambrose writes:
     "The elder brother who prided himself in doing the will of the Father, nevertheless was at cross purposes with the Father's will. He stands outside and he does not enter the mystic feast. He becomes a servant and the servant becomes a son." (Ibid) In other words, the servant, whom the elder brother inquired of, partook of the mystic feast and knows more than the son, who in his anger and resentment remained outside.
     It is a woeful thing to be separated from the Church, for as the Psalmist says above, "They shall perish." Indeed, the Prodigal was brought to this very state, exclaiming, "I am perishing!"
     To be separated from the Church, whether by position, situation, or attitude, is dangerous:
     Saint Cyprian wrote, "Those who have departed from the Church, we trust may return by God's mercy. For one cannot perish unless it is plain that he must perish. The Lord says, 'Every planting which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.' He alone, who has not been planted in the precepts and warnings of God the Father, can depart from the Church, and thus, must perish. He alone, who is not of the Father's planting, can forsake the bishops and abide in his madness with schismatics and heretics, and thus, must perish." (St. Cyprian, Epistle 48:4)
     Do we entertain the notion that we can separate ourselves from the Church, whether in mind or in place, with impunity? Solomon the wise teaches otherwise.
     In his Proverbs, two women are personified. One is personified as "Wisdom," which is the Church ("Wisdom hath built Her house"). The other is personified as the "Harlot" ("The Harlot's house leads unto death"). Like the Prodigal, those who depart from "Wisdom," the Church, Solomon warns, join themselves by default to "The Harlot," and are one flesh and one mind with her:
      "Remove thy way far from the strange woman; draw not near to the doors of her house;
Lest thou give away thy life to others, and thy substance to the merciless; Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours come into the houses of strangers; And thou repent at last, when the flesh of thy body is consumed, and thou shalt say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs! I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the assembly." (Proverbs 5)
     Surely, do we not see all the elements of the Prodigal's sojourn into that "far country," expressed here? - the uniting with harlots; one's labours coming into the houses of strangers; the consuming of the flesh of the body; the regret of not hearkening to instruction; and in summation, all the evils that occur when one separates himself from the Church.
     And so, whether like the Prodigal, we have physically separated ourselves from the Church, or like the eldest son, have departed from the Church while still 'in' the Church, in our difference of pursuit, we are exhorted by this Parable to have the courage and resolve to cry out, "Father, I have sinned."
     For where there is God, there is hope: "There hath no temptation taken you…but God will make a way to escape." II Cor. 5:20  And what was the way of escape for the Prodigal?
     This admission, "Father, I have sinned," can bring about a radical change for the better in one's life. It certainly did in the life of the Prodigal. For no sooner than the Prodigal son said, "Father, I have sinned," the Father said to his slaves, "Bring forth the robe, the chief one, and clothe him, and provide a ring for his hand, and sandals for the feet. And bring the calf, the wheat-fed one, and slay it, and let us eat and be merry."
     The Father immediately forgave his penitent son. Why? St. Gregory Palamas explains, "As long as the Prodigal son was in the land of the passions, even though he thought and spoke words of repentance, he gained no benefit at all. Only when he left his sinful deeds and ran to his father did he attain what was beyond hope." (The Homilies of St. Gregory Palamas)
     We too, if we desire a radical change in our circumstances, must flee "the land of the passions." We must, if we wish to "come home," examine our lives with careful scrutiny, and "see if there be any double-mindedness in us."
     And let us all, like the Prodigal, return to our Loving Father, so ready to forgive. And let us cry out to Him these words from the Vespers Hymn:
     "I have wasted the wealth which Thou gavest me, and in my wretchedness, I have fed with the dumb beasts. But now I return to Thee, O compassionate Father and cry out with tears, 'Father, I have sinned. Receive me as a hired servant and save me.'" (The Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Vespers)

His Eminence, The Most Reverend Archbishop Gregory of Denver and Colorado
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church in America
Dormition Skete, Buena Vista, Colorado