Notice that when the Lord wanted to make a covenant with man, and when He gave Moses on Mount Sinai the tablets of the covenant, the people were doing great iniquity at that very time. And when Moses received the tablets of the covenant, written by none other than the Finger of God, and came down from the mountain, he heard a noise and saw a calf cast out of gold. Moses in anger dropped the tablets and broke the calf. But the Lord was angry with Israel and revealed to Moses that Israel would be blotted out of the book of life because of their iniquities. Then Moses took upon himself the image of repentance for his people. He began to pray and ask that the Lord would forgive Israel, and if the Lord could not forgive the people, then He would blot out him, Moses, from the book of life. And this entry of one man into a covenant with God saved Israel.

The covenant of God extended to the whole people, and only Moses entered into this covenant through the image of repentance. He himself made a covenant with God. We see the same thing in the New Testament, the same people who shouted "Hosanna!" to Jesus, then shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" And the first one made a covenant with God, remember who? -brigand. When Christ shed His Blood on the Cross for all the people, at that time He alone made a covenant with God. He stopped the other robber, saying:

"What are you doing? We take what is due, but this one has done nothing evil," and with a prayer he turned to the Lord: "Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom." And at that moment the covenant of man with God was made, and this man was a wise thief. The New Covenant of God with man was revealed to him.

My dear ones, it is only through our entry into the covenant of man with God that our entry into the covenant of God with man is revealed.

In the Old Testament, sacrifices were made by priests and prayers were offered on behalf of the entire people. Outwardly, they were in a covenant with God, but in reality they were not in it.

In the New Testament, Christ makes it possible for all to enter into a covenant with Him. But on one condition - repentance and constant abiding in it.

Here we are triumphing Orthodoxy. It is customary for us to say that there is an image of worldly life and an image of monastic life - the angelic image. In the final attainment, however, we must all be equal to the angels, and this division is wrong. The monastic life is a special repentance, and not at all an angelic life. If we are not in the form of repentance, then all the Sacraments are closed to us. There are seven Sacraments, and one of them we perform par excellence is the Sacrament of Repentance. Each Sacrament requires one or another substance for its performance: Baptism - water, Anointing of the Sick - oil, etc. And in the Sacrament of Repentance we ourselves give this substance - our tears, our broken heart. This Sacrament is performed in our soul: the human soul is the throne for it. Each of us now, at this moment, can check whether he is performing this Sacrament and how. God has made a covenant with all of us: we are baptized. But let us examine ourselves: whether we have entered into this covenant, and if we are in it, then how we carry the image of repentance, which we can sometimes lose and defile. And if only we carry it, then all the other Sacraments will be open to us. If we have not completely repented and have not brought contrition of heart, if our sins are not before us, then we do not perform the other Sacraments either.

It was the same in the Old Testament. People constantly lost the covenant with God and constantly restored it. When king Josiah sent to one of the prophetesses in Jerusalem, she said to him the words of the Lord: "Because your heart has softened, and you have wept, I have heard you." Then Josiah gathered the people together and made a covenant for the correction of his life and that of the common one. And Judas was accepted into the covenant with God, and even in the last moments of the Savior's earthly life he was nourished with His Body and Blood, but remained outside the covenant. And I repeat to you once again: the key to all the Sacraments is the covenant with God. No one knows about it, it is our mystery before God. Keeping our covenant with God is our life's work.

Only through it can we receive from the Lord the fulfillment of His covenant. And if someone does not have a secret covenant with God, if someone has not yet made one, then now is a good, suitable time for this. Remember that only when we ourselves take upon ourselves this covenant, only then do we receive the opportunity to live with God. Let us think carefully about all this, and I hope that each of us, if we look carefully into our souls, will see that we wanted to receive everything from God, but we ourselves did not give Him anything. And if we give our covenant to the Lord and fall down and ask for forgiveness, then we will receive it from Him.

Let us, dear ones, not only think about it, but also try to fulfill everything that we have just talked about. After all, the time is very favorable! Amen.

Source: Moscow Eparchial Vedomosti No 1-2/2004

Sermon

1. Church New Year Day (September 1)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!