The events of the Gospel often seem to us distant, almost illusory; and yet they are addressed to each of us at every moment. We seek consolation and encouragement in the Gospel – and we pass by the severity, the inflexibility of the Gospel word, the way the Lord calls us. Now we are on the eve of Christmas. What joy could and should be for us – that God loved the world so much that He entered into this world, became incarnate, loved mankind so much that He became One of us.. But since He has become One of us, we ought to be so much like Him! We should strive with all our being so that He would not be ashamed, hurt by the fact that He is related to us, His own... When there is a person in our family whom we revere, whom we marvel at – he is so wonderful that we would like to bow down before him – how we try not to shame him in the face of the people around us! And not even in front of others – we try not to make him feel ashamed that we are not like him, that we do not strive for the same thing that he strives for, and that we do not care about the high ideal, beauty, meaning that he lives by.

     Probably, each of us knows how painful it can be when something deeply touches us, excites us; We will tell our close friend about it, and he will shrug his shoulders, because he is simply not interested, he does not care about it, and turn the conversation to another topic. The theme of Christ is His love for us, God's love for us, God's love addressed to each of us. This theme is why He became man, and for which He endured all things in silence, and for which He died, saying, Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do... And in the face of this, we live as if none of this ever happened; as if the Incarnation had not existed, as if God's love on the Cross had not been revealed to us. It is as if we are saying to Him: we are not interested; we have other concerns, our own; we are interested in our earthly life as it is, we are attached to it; Do not tell us that it can open up and embrace heaven, earth, and eternity, and that its name must be "love"... And the love is not the kind that is focused on me or in me, but the love is spacious, capable of embracing ever wider circles of people, events, and things.

     And so, during the weeks preparatory to the Nativity of Christ, we read the Gospel story about those invited to the feast. Let us read it in the words of the Gospel itself:

     When you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed that they cannot repay you, for you will be rewarded in the resurrection of the righteous. Hearing this, one of those who sat at table with Him said to Him, "Blessed is he who eats bread in the Kingdom of God!" And he said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and called many, and when the time for supper came, he sent his servant to say to those who were called, 'Go, for all things are ready.' And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first said to him, "I have bought land, and I must go to see it; Please forgive me. Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them; Please forgive me. A third said, "I am married, and therefore I cannot come." And when the servant returned, he reported it to his master. Then, being angry, the master of the house said to his servant, "Go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city, and bring hither the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind." And the servant said, "Lord! it has been fulfilled as you have commanded, and there is still room. The lord said to the servant, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel me to come, that my house may be filled." For I say unto you, that none of those who are invited shall partake of my supper, for many are invited, but few are chosen" (Luke 14:13-24).

     Is this not an accurate picture of what I have been talking about? We are called to God's feast. This feast would have begun on earth if man had not betrayed himself and betrayed God. When God created the world, He created it beautiful, in complete harmony with Himself and in the harmony of all creatures with each other. And this world could have survived in its primordial beauty, could have grown from the beauty of innocence into the slender and already unshakable beauty of holiness, but man has betrayed both himself and God. He was called to be the leader of the whole world from innocence to holiness; but he himself departed from this path, and the whole world wavered and became what we see it to be. And so, at the beginning of this parable, we are given three images that are applicable to each of us in this fallen world, which we have chosen as our homeland, while our homeland is the Kingdom of God, which could be earth and heaven at the same time, but remains only heaven until God wins the final victory over evil, over strife, over sin.

     The first of those who are invited says to the messenger from the owner of the house: "I have bought myself a piece of land; I need to examine it, master it; he is mine"... This is what I have just been talking about: we have chosen the land and we say: I want to develop it, it is mine; I want to possess it to the end; I want her to be what I am... And we do not notice that, trying to hold on to the land, to make it our own, we ourselves become its slaves, we belong to it. We cannot tear ourselves away from it, we are completely immersed in it; we grow our roots into it, we no longer look upwards, but look only at this land: so that it may be fruitful. And in the end, we belong to this earth in such a way that we lie down in it with our bones, we are buried in it, our body dissolves in it; what we thought was ours now possesses us. We have no time to go to the feast of God, to the feast of faith, to the joy of meeting, to the Divine harmony of everything, because we want to master the earth; And as a result, it absorbs us.

     Another says, "I bought five pairs of oxen—I must test them! I need to check their performance! And besides, I didn't buy them to stand in a stable, they have to bear the work, to bear fruit"... Isn't that how we think – each in his own way, but all in the same way – that there are tasks before us! We must do something, do something on earth! How can we live without leaving a trace?.. And everyone tries, to the best of his ability, to work. Some of the ancient fathers see the image of these five pairs of oxen as a symbol of our five senses. We are given the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, etc.: how can all this not be applied to earthly life? But the five senses apply only to the earth; the sky cannot be grasped by sight, hearing, or smell; The sky is taken by a different instinct. Even earthly love is not embraced by the five senses – what can we say about Divine love, about eternity? It is as if we put these five senses of ours into the market and acquire what we can – but only earthly...