And this experience is invariably repeated in the history of mankind from Adam to the present day: nothing earthly can satiate the human soul. Earthly pleasures do not satiate her, earthly power and glory do not satiate her. King Solomon had great power, wealth and glory, experienced all the pleasures of this world, and so, reviewing his life path and summing up, he says that all this is dust and vanity, and only one thing is important – to fulfill the will of God in his life.

And this is true: riches are vain, pleasures and fame are vain, they do not satiate the soul of man, do not give it true peace. Sometimes, for example, you read an interview in a magazine with some famous actor, or director, or musician in the past, and you are amazed at how tired this person is, how devastated and disappointed he is in everything. After all, it would seem that he lived the most eventful, fullest and most creative life, gained fame, starred in beautiful films, wrote a lot of good music, had everything in this life that people usually strive for – and at the end of his life, the state of his soul can be described as deep fatigue, emptiness and disappointment. Why, where does such a sad result come from? The answer is simple: because man has nourished his soul all his life with the earthly, and the earthly cannot saturate the human soul.

Yes, we are familiar with this from our own daily experience. For example, after reading a newspaper or magazine and even finding something interesting there, a person cannot be satisfied with it and is looking for a new newspaper, a new magazine, new information. Having tried some entertainment, a person wants to try something else, to have fun in some other way. After watching a movie, listening to music, you want to watch more and more films, listen to more and more new music — and so on endlessly. It is like a squirrel running in a wheel, and its end will always be the same – fatigue, emptiness and disappointment.

It is completely different when a person gives his soul not earthly, but heavenly food – union and communion with God. Such a union occurs by the action of the Grace of God, when it comes into the soul of a person. The soul then changes: having received the light of Grace into itself, it itself becomes light, becomes, in the words of the Holy Fathers, peace, joy, love and perfection. And in this state of communion with her Creator, she finds complete satisfaction, for God becomes for her all that she can desire. This is the true heavenly food or the true heavenly water, which satisfies the thirst of the human soul that cannot be satisfied by anything else.

It was in order to give people such water that Christ came to earth. "Whosoever thirst, let him come unto me and drink," he says in the Gospel. These words of His mean that only in communion with God can a person find everything that his soul strives for. Only in God do all his eternal aspirations find their satisfaction. For example, if a person seeks the truth, he will find it in Christ, for Christ is the Truth and in Him are hidden all the sources of wisdom and knowledge. If he seeks freedom, then let him go to Christ in order to receive from Him the only true freedom – freedom from death, for no one but Christ can give him such freedom. Let him who seeks spiritual strength come to Christ, for Christ is the Lord of hosts, and His powers are omnipotent and infinite. He who seeks glory can find eternal and everlasting glory with Christ, for He is the King of Glory, and the whole universe is full of His glory. And, in short, all the good things that man can think of are found in Christ, and in Him alone. Let us recall a well-known episode from the life of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, how she sought the highest beauty, wealth, wisdom and nobility, and how she found all this in Christ...

Thus, earthly goods are not true goods, but only their appearance. All of them are vain, perishable, transient, all mixed with lies, evil, sinful filth. Such are earthly glory, earthly power, earthly riches and pleasures. Such are any earthly advantages. People are carried away and chase after all this because they do not know the true heavenly blessings. Those who have tasted these blessings are no longer seduced by the earth, but consider all earthly things to be dust blown away by the wind. All the saints, that is, people who have learned this by the experience of their lives, testify to this. The Apostle Paul says that he considered all his earthly advantages (and he had them) to be lost and gave them up in order to gain Christ. St. Gregory the Theologian says the same thing: of all his earthly acquisitions, he derived only that benefit that he found in him to prefer Christ. St. Silouan the Athonite wrote that, having tasted the Grace of God, many kings and rulers left their thrones and became monks and hermits, so as not to be deprived of true heavenly blessings.

Brothers and sisters, we must first of all seek these true heavenly blessings! These true blessings are in Christ, and that is why He says to the entire human race: "Whosoever thirst, let him come to Me and drink." The water that He gives us is the Grace of the Holy Spirit, uniting man with God and giving him eternal life and eternal blessings. This is the true heavenly water, which alone is capable of quenching the thirst of the human soul, capable of giving it perfect, never-failing satiety. And in the acquisition of this Grace, in union with God, lies precisely the highest goal and meaning of the Christian life. Amen.