The Way to God. Sunday before Epiphany

The feast of the Nativity of Christ is over, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is approaching. In the first centuries, it was one feast – Theophany, when both the birth of the Savior and His appearance to preach were remembered. But by the end of the fourth century, Christmas and Epiphany began to be celebrated separately.

Today, at the crossroads between the two feasts, we hear the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, which speaks of John the Baptist (Mark 1:1-8), and the end of the Second Epistle to Timothy, which was written by the Apostle Paul shortly before his martyrdom (2 Tim. 4:1-8). What is the connection between these readings? I think it's because both of them tell us about believing in God as a way. Faith is the path by which we go to God, and the way by which the Lord comes to us. The preaching of the Gospel began with the words of John the Baptist, addressed to the people: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." And the Apostle Paul says: "I am already becoming a sacrifice, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:67). Flow means running; The Apostle uses here the image of a distance runner who has achieved his goal, who has won the competition. Thus, today we hear about the beginning and the end of the path, and about the crown that is prepared for each of those who have not stumbled, have not stumbled on the treadmill of spiritual life, but have achieved their goal. And the goal is the Lord Himself.

The beginning of the Christian life, the beginning that we must lay down daily, is repentance. The words of John the Baptist: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2) are addressed to each of us. These words should be understood not in the sense that the Kingdom of God has approached chronologically, but in the sense that it is always near us, it is always ready to come and is coming to us. The only question is whether we are ready to come into the Kingdom of God, to receive it into ourselves. After all, outside the Kingdom of God will remain not those whom the Lord will condemn for their mistakes, but those who did not desire or did not find the strength to walk this path to the end, to the doors of the Kingdom of God, who stopped halfway. And we must remember that, although we are all already on the way, there is a danger that we will not reach, stumble, do not reach, do not run.

The Apostle Paul says: "Be vigilant in all things, endure sorrows, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." "The work of the evangelist" is the work of the evangelist. Each of us must be a preacher, bring the Gospel of Christ to the world – not only in words, but first of all in our way of life and the purposefulness with which we must go to meet God and seek the Kingdom of God. In this we must set an example for others, and this is our ministry, of which the Apostle Paul speaks in the second Epistle to Timothy.

Today, at the beginning of the path that leads us from Christmas to Pascha, the Church reminds us of the beginning that we must make daily through repentance, of the determination with which we must seek the Kingdom of God. The Church also reminds us that Christ is always with us, that the Kingdom of Heaven is close to us, and it depends only on us whether we will achieve the goal, whether we will walk this path to the end, whether we will receive the crown that the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for each of us. Amen.

January 16, 2000

A festival of water and light. Epiphany

The Lord created water as the element of life, but human sin made it the source of death. When the Lord created water, the Spirit of God "hovered over the waters," filling the water with His life-giving energy. But when human sin multiplied on earth, the water of life became the water of death. In the waters of the Great Flood, the old humanity perished in order to give life to a new humanity, renewed by these terrible waters.

Before the coming of Christ to earth, John the Baptist baptized people in the waters of the Jordan.

People descended into these waters old, and came out new, renewed by repentance, because human sin was washed away by water. But then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came to John to immerse Himself in the waters of the Jordan – not to be cleansed from sin, but in order to sanctify them, to transform them, to fill them with life. Jesus came to earth to take away the sin of the world: "He took upon Himself our infirmities, and bore our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). And into the waters of the Jordan He descended to take upon Himself the burden of sin and death, and to make the element of water again the element of life.

Since then, we have been consecrating water every year, and this water has become a great shrine. This water, in which God Himself is present, sanctifies everything that is sprinkled with it, it heals people from diseases.