Bishop Basil (Nesterenko)

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Glory to Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters!

I congratulate you with the Holy Sunday and the Holy Communion.

Today we have heard the short, but very deep Gospel (Luke XII:16-21), where God told a parable about the rich man. And as it always happens Lord teaches us with His parables. Generally, we understand His knowledge with our mind. But not every man can take it with his soul and heart. That is why we live in such way. We understand everything, but we don’t have enough strength to take His knowledge with our soul.

So, today the Lord told us about the way we have to deal with our property, which we have been earning during all our life. In general, we must realize that we can get everything only with God’s help. A lot of people think that they deserve all material wealth which they have. But they completely forget that it happened according to God’s will and without His help they would have nothing.

And God meant in this parable about the rich man that we take care about our material wealth all our life. Our spiritual achievements are very poor. It is good if we at least pray in the evening and morning. It is good if we come to the Temple once a week. Thank You, God. But we have to understand that we must live the way God told us. We have to understand that the death always stands behind our back. We shouldn’t be afraid of these words. We have to be happy and sad – everything has to be in our life. But we should remember that God can take our life every minute; despite it is the greatest value. We take care about our possessions, our health. We understand that we must take care about our health, because it changes, becomes better or worse. But we can’t change one thing – our death. It is sad to talk about that, but it is true. We see in the parable that the rich fool was happy to have such big wealth, such great crop. But he did not thank God; he did not realize that it was God, who helped him to get that wealth. He did not overcome those trials. He dreamed to tear down his barns, build new ones and store all grain and goods. He dreamed to relax many years. Relax and go deep into sins. He thought only about that, nothing else.

And it is very sad. Because if we transfer this parable to our life we see that a lot of people deal with their wealth the same way. They put a lot of money into their barns (modern banks) and relax, because they are secured for all life. And not only they are secured, but all their children, even grandchildren. But they do not think about the fact that any moment God can take their life.

The most blissful barns are needs of our close people, they truly will not be full, because they are from God and made by God. That is why we have to remember that we should share everything with our close people and do not gather all treasures here, on the Earth, but toward God, where moth and rust will not destroy them.

And when we stand in front of God, we shouldn’t be shy to tell about our life, what we did and what tried to do. But remember, that we can’t live righteously only with our own efforts. We are weak, so God will estimate even our attempts. He will say: “My child, I see that you tried, that you tried to do good things and live religiously. But something you couldn’t do. Anyway with our attempts you got your treasures on the Heavens.”

That is why I wish all to understand this parable in full with your soul and try to gather treasures towards God on the Heavens.

Let the Lord save you.