Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov

SERMON

All-Night Vigil on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Tomorrow is called the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, after a parable that we should all know well. It is very instructive, and therefore before Great Lent the Holy Church reads it for all of us.

Today's Sunday Gospel spoke of how the Lord, risen from the dead, appeared to His disciples. He went in and said, "Peace be unto you!" and they were afraid, because they thought they were seeing a spirit. But Christ said: "Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter into your hearts?" Here we touch upon a very important problem, and the parable of the prodigal son also speaks of this.

Today we heard the hymn: "O Lord, Thou hast given us a weapon against the devil." The cross is likened to a weapon. And very often in the church we hear the words: armor, sword, weapons, battle, battle, army, and so on. What kind of abuse is this? The Apostle Paul says: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but... against the spirits of wickedness in high places." The Church is an army, but it does not fight with people. In our time, some people are trying to fight the enemies of the Church, they would like to hang them, tear them to pieces, shoot them, and so on, because they do not know the essence of the subject. And the essence is that our warfare is spiritual.

We are all surrounded by spirits. We are surrounded by angels and holy saints of God, but because of our damage, we do not see them. And those people who follow the path of abstinence from sin, the purification of their hearts, are vouchsafed to see angels and the light of God, which can be contemplated with a pure heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Sometimes we hear the following opinion: no one has seen God, so it is impossible to prove that He exists. But this is not true, God has been seen by many, hundreds of thousands of people, and some have even touched Him with their own hands. The Apostle John the Theologian said: "We touched Him with our hands."

In addition to the spirits of light, we are also surrounded by spirits of darkness. And many thoughts that come to our heads, and then are let into our hearts, are inspired by them. Therefore, spiritual life is a struggle with these spirits, a constant spiritual battle.