The first, about whom the Gospel tells, who wanted to follow Christ, wanted to bury his father first. "Let the dead bury their dead," the Lord answered. "Go and preach the Gospel." The words seem to be cruel. How can you not bury your father? These words were spoken by the Lord, which means that they are not cruel, but full of truth.

One must understand spiritually: of course, the Lord was not so cruel as to forbid the burial of one's father, but it was necessary to understand these words spiritually. How? This meant: if you want to follow Me, — abandon all worries about the dead, about the corruptible, about the perishing; direct your thoughts to God, get away from this sinful land, lift up your heart to grief, forget about dead deeds. Go and preach the Gospel.

This is the teaching to us, the pastors of the Church. It is necessary to go far, far away from all dead deeds, to raise the mind and heart to heaven, to the spiritual, to think about the things above, and not about the earthly, as the Apostle Paul demands. Dead deeds must be left behind, leaving the dead to bury the dead. The dead in spirit are many, infinitely numerous, let us leave them to occupy themselves with dead works, and Christians must turn away from dead works.

Another asked to go with the Lord, but asked permission to take leave of his family. His heart was drawn to the Lord, but his concern for his family and his attachment to his family made him look back. "No one who looks back is trustworthy for the Kingdom of God."

He who has laid his hand on the plow, the plough that will plow the field of God, on which the holy seeds, the seeds of righteousness, grow, must not look back. He must strive with all his thoughts to God. You cannot look back, regret what you have left behind, you cannot remember how you lived before, you cannot regret anything left behind in the world. If you have left the world, do not remember the world.

Love the Lord with all your heart, destroy the remnant of your love for the world, do not look back, do not remember your past life, when you thought little about God, when you thought about how to live better, more cheerfully. Forget about your former life, and do not forget to renounce the deeds of your former life.

Never say: today I will live as before, I will do what I used to do, and tomorrow I will leave it all behind. If you think like that, you will not follow the Lord. And tomorrow you will say the same. Tomorrow you will imagine pictures of life abandoned by the oboe, and tomorrow you will postpone a new life for tomorrow. And my conscience will remind me: leave it now, leave it now. And conscience will repeat its own, remind you of the same thing. If you do not listen to the voice of conscience, then he will fall silent completely, and what he has been putting off for tomorrow will remain postponed forever. What should be forgotten will not be forgotten.

It is rightly said that he who looks back will not be reliable for the Kingdom of God. He who has put his hand to the plough must not look back. You need to look only ahead; forward, always forward, and, lifting up your heart to God, follow Christ.

Hurry, hurry—hurry to follow Christ. Life is short, and therefore hasten to follow Christ.

Grace works in the heart like leaven in dough

December 15, 1946

"And he said, 'What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I liken him? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden; and it grew, and became a great tree, and the birds of the air took refuge in its branches." And he said, "To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?" It is like leaven, which a woman took and put into three measures of flour, until everything was leavened" (Luke 13:18-21).

How is this to be understood that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, just as a large branchy shrub grows from a small mustard seed? What does that mean?