And again he began to teach by the sea; and a great multitude gathered to him, so that he went into the boat and sat on the sea, and all the people were on the land by the sea. And he taught them many parables (Mark 4:1-2).

Beginning the analysis of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, which contains several parables with which Christ addressed His listeners, I would like to pose the following question: why does Christ speak in parables? Why does He allow the idea that some people will listen and not hear, see and not see? And why do His disciples have a special position in this regard? Everything seems to open up to them. If they themselves do not understand, then the Savior Christ explains to them...

First, it is necessary to clearly imagine that a parable is not just an illustration in a book, in which a child can see what he does not yet know how to read. A parable is a multifaceted story, a story in which there are many shades, different meanings; Its content can be understood by each person to the extent of his sensitivity, his understanding, his ability to catch the intentions of the speaker. In this regard, the understanding of parables depends on what you yourself have grown up to, on the experience that has developed in you. An ancient proverb said: Like is known by like... If a word is heard in a parable, or if a concept of which you have even a vague idea is overlooked, you suddenly grasp the meaning of this parable, at least in this respect. This parable is already the beginning of further development in you, as if, as it is said in the parable of the sower (we will now move on to it), the seed has fallen into the soil, which is all your inner experience – mental, heart, and worldly, and begins to germinate. In this regard, the parable is very important.

After all, imagine who surrounded the Savior Christ. There was always an innumerable crowd of people around Him – very motley, diverse. There were people there who had already matured to a considerable extent to understand what Christ said: they had both inner experience and a deep mental understanding of their experience and life. There were people in whom the question had already matured, it was clear to their minds, their hearts were torn, but did not yet find an answer; In the parable, they could find this answer. These people are already ripe for hearing the parable and understanding it. There were other people who were gradually just becoming aware of some question, or some inner experience disturbed them. They seemed to feel that they had to understand something, and could not grasp what it was. (We all know this condition). And Christ shows a parable, and suddenly in this parable they recognize their question, and their perplexity, and their search, and, perhaps, they find a full or partial answer to what they have gradually formed, but have not yet matured. And some people around Christ did not experience anything like this, and therefore, when it came to a parable or even to Christ's direct answer to this or that question put to Him, they probably shrugged their shoulders: "What is this strange question? And what is this ridiculous, incomprehensible answer?" This happens to us all the time. We hear someone's words, but we are so busy with our own thoughts or experiences that we cannot catch what the person is saying to us. Or we see something, we see it quite clearly, but we don't want to see, our vision is kind of blurred. And, as it is said in this parable, when we hear, we do not hear, when we see, we do not see. It is not true that the parable is told in such a way that we do not understand: it is said in such a way that those who have matured, for whom understanding is a necessity, for whom understanding will be a source of growth, a new step into the depths, will understand.

And those who could, at best, understand, but only with their heads, without in any way correlating what they have understood with their deep life, nevertheless do not need to understand, because such a head-to-head understanding only destroys. I remember my father once said to me: "Think more about what you will read, because your memory will always work faster than your mind." The point here is precisely that a person should not burden himself with some kind of head understanding that has nothing to do with his inner experience. It is better for him not to understand anything and to be perplexed either about his stupidity, about the closeness of his heart and mind, or simply about the fact that there is such a secret in front of him that he cannot penetrate, to which he needs to mature in a completely different way.

Speaking of parables in general, I would like to draw your attention to one more thing: Christ's love for nature. This is a very important trait in Him. A very large number of Christ's parables are based on the contemplation of nature, on how He sees it. If it is possible to use such a comparison about God who became man, He sees it as an artist. He catches depth, beauty, purity in it; whereas we very often look at nature only from our own (utilitarian) point of view. I don't remember who said that an artist would look at a field and think, "What a beauty!" and a peasant would look at a field and say, "A rich harvest!" We look at each other and see only what our heart is capable of responding to. One person sees the beauty of another, his (or her) face, or the whole appearance — and sees only this external beauty. Another, peering into this beauty, sees the inner structure of a person behind it. Sometimes he sees that behind this beauty lies a terrible, seductive ugliness; And sometimes it is seen that this beauty is the radiance of inner light. And so Christ looks at nature in this way. He is a man, but a man without sin. He does not look at nature from the point of view of a farmer and not from the point of view of someone who wants to possess nature, to rule over it. He looks at it as an expression of the wisdom of God, which created such beauty, put into it such a deep, subtle meaning.

In our time, it is very important to return to Christ's relationship to nature, to its beauty, to its meaning in itself, not only in relation to us. When we look at it, it is important not to think about what benefit we can get from it, or what danger lies in it. We can look upon nature as something brought into being by God, not only in order to manifest perfect beauty, but so that in due time, freed from the burden of sin which man has placed upon nature, it may become part of the divine kingdom, when God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). There is a passage in the Apostle Paul where he says that all creation groans in anticipation of the revelation of the children of God (see Romans 8:19-22). All of nature, all of the earth, all of heaven, all of creation groans, waiting for the moment when man will return to God and be able to lead all created things into the depths of God, when man will be able, having become a deified being himself, that is, a being in whom God lives and who is rooted in God, to bring all created things into the depths of Divine life, just as a shepherd leads a flock. This is our calling.

At the beginning of the Bible we are told that man was given dominion over creation, not to enslave it, not to rule over it like tyrants, tormentors, dictators, but in order to share all his knowledge with creation, to lead it to the fullness to which it is called, that is, again, to that, if I may say so, that it may become the visible garment of God's presence.

This is a topic of modern ecology, a very important topic for us. We must understand that our Christian vocation is, among other things, to immerse ourselves in the Divine element, to be cleansed from all sin, from all impurity, from all darkness that closes our communion with God. And the next step is to use our example, love, and wisdom to draw the entire universe with us into the depths of God.

After these preliminary remarks, we can go directly to the parables of Christ set forth in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. The first is the parable of the sower.

Listen: behold, a sower went out to sow; And while he was sowing it came to pass that something fell by the wayside, and the birds flew in and pecked at it. Some fell on a stony place, where there was little earth, and soon sprang up, because the ground was shallow; but when the sun rose, it withered, and as it had no root, it withered. Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew, and choked the seed, and it did not bear fruit. And some fell on good ground, and brought forth fruit, which sprang up and grew, and brought forth some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred. And he said to them, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!" When He was left without a multitude, those around Him, together with the twelve, asked Him about the parable. And he said to them, "It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are in parables; so that they look with their own eyes, and do not see; they hear with their own ears, and do not understand, lest they be converted, and their sins be forgiven. And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then can you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. Sown by the wayside means those in whom the word is sown, but to whom, when they hear, Satan immediately comes and snatches away the word sown in their hearts. In the same way, what is sown in a stony place signifies those who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, but have no root in themselves and are fickle; then, when tribulation or persecution for the word comes, they are immediately offended. That which is sown in thorns signifies those who hear the word, but in whom the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and other desires, entering into them, choke the word, and it is without fruit. And what is sown in good ground means those who hear the word and receive and bear fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold (4:3-20).

The first question that the parable I have just read raises in me is this: Are there people who are doomed not to understand because they represent this or that barren land? Can it be that only a few, depicted here as a field of good, fertile land, can understand and therefore find salvation? If so, there would be a deep injustice in God and a great unrighteousness.

We need to understand a very important thing: this parable does not define people in general, dividing them into categories. This parable tells us about the states that occur in us. Each of us changes from day to day. A person is sensitive and can perceive every living word to the depths of his soul, and there this word, like a seed in a field, remains in the very depths and begins to revive, sprout, and in due time will bear rich fruit. At other moments we are insensitive, unable to respond not only to the parable, but even to the grief of the closest and dearest person, when we are petrified by our grief or some inner concern. Then, although the seed falls into us, although we hear a friend tell us something very important about his grief: his child died, his wife abandoned him, something happened to him that seems irreparable to him, we do not hear, because everything falls on the stone that our heart has become. At other times, it happens that we are responsive, but this responsiveness is superficial; We are still superficial people, we do not have the depth that is able to perceive with force what comes to us from the outside. Again, this can refer to another person's grief or joy. A person comes to us with grief, and we can sit with him for a short time – an hour and a half, listen to him affectionately, console him, hug his shoulders with our hands. And when he leaves, we are ready to shake off all his grief and immerse ourselves in our ordinary life, in the flattest things. We have done our job, "comforted" another person, took part in his grief, now his grief remains with him, "and what do I have to do with it? Now I can go to the cinema, read a book, or visit friends, or do something that I need..." This is what this parable points to when it speaks of people who are superficial, in whom there is no root, no depth. Yes, this word has fallen and matured — only for a while.

When it comes to the word of God, alas, the same thing happens. This seed falls on such soil and takes root for a while, because we have accepted it with joy, with interest, with vivacity, but we have no depth. Perhaps grief did not plow our souls; Perhaps earthly, human joys never reached us, we only took a sip, we never drank deeply from the cup of sorrow or joy, and therefore we do not live deeply enough...