Archpriest Vitalian (Drobotun)

Glory to Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters!

I congratulate you with the Holy Communion, with the consecration of your souls and bodies.

Today we have heard very interesting Gospel (Luke VII:11-16), where God did a great miracle – rose from dead and healed. Blind people started to see, cripples started to walk and their health was improved.

And there was one event. Jesus was walking and he suddenly saw a burial service. The only Son of his mother died. What did He do? Jesus decided to raise that dead man.

What could He do? The simple man could think: “Why did her son die? Maybe she made a sin. Maybe she did something wrong.” Do you understand? It is a kind of damnation. God did not think in such way, He showed His mercy. He saw that the person was suffering. He wanted to help her. He came up to her, prayed, blessed and the widow’s son rose from the dead.

This is an example for us, dear brothers and sisters. We must act the same way, we shouldn’t blame. It was also said in the Acts of Apostles today. We shouldn’t blame even that people, who do evil things. We have to take care about salvation of our soul. We have to think on the fact – how do I look like in front of God. How would happen God’s trial for me when the time comes? And we shouldn’t think about other people with damnation.

God healed that boy; rose him from the dead. God did miracles; He continues to do miracles all the time. But when the Lord does miracles some people doubt in His miracles. They do not believe in them in full. And especially for such people the Lord comes again and again. He shows that He is all-powerful and he can do miracles.

If we look through the Church calendar we can notice that today is the day of Apostle Thomas. We know that Apostle Thomas doubted all the time. He even said: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” And the Lord appeared in front of all His disciplines specially for him, that he believed.

God comes to us too. But we do not see Him physically, but our soul feels Him. That is why, dear brothers and sisters, I want to remind you Jesus’ words: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”(Matthew 5:48)

Today we have heard in the Holy Gospel how Jesus showed His mercy. That is why, dear brothers and sisters, we also must act with mercy. And the mercy as we know from the story about Tobit can save from all sins. Maybe we did wrong things, a lot of different sins in our life, but mercy will help us to get salvation.

Mercy will help us to be closer to God. Because mercy shows when the soul is full with God’s love, when the soul wants to help another soul, when a person has the compassion to people, who suffer. This is the show of God’s love.

When we fill up with God’s love, come to the Temple, pray, receive Holy Communion God can do something through us. We have a free choice: let Him do something or not.

That is why dear brothers and sisters, I appeal to all present people and all, who are not present today, to be merciful, as the Lord is merciful.

Glory to Jesus Christ!