Remember, brothers and sisters: today belongs to us, and what will happen tomorrow is a mystery that no one knows!

They say there are three mysteries: when we die, why we die, and where we will be after death. And who knows, perhaps the angel of death has already been sent to some of those present here...

Amen.

The Parable of the Sower

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

Brothers and sisters! Today you have heard the parable of the sower: "The sower went out to sow," says the Lord, "and while he was sowing some things fell by the wayside, and the birds flew in and pecked at them; some fell on stony places, where there was little earth, and soon sprang up, because the earth was shallow. But when the sun rose, it withered, and as it had no root, it withered; some fell into thorns, and thorns grew, and choked him; some fell on good ground and bore fruit: one a hundredfold, and another sixty, and some thirty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! (Matt. 13:3-9). In Palestine, it was a familiar picture for listeners: in the spring, a farmer went out into a plowed field with a bag on a leather belt thrown over his shoulder and filled with seeds. With both hands, he threw handfuls of seeds in different directions, trying to make sure that the seeds did not lie close and the shoots did not interfere with each other later.

One of the seeds fell by the wayside, another on a stone, a third on a thorn, and a fourth on ploughed land...

What does this parable mean? It explains and reveals to us a mystery – the one that each of us has pondered more than once: why some people believe in God, while others are indifferent to everything holy; why some people gladly accept the word of the Gospel, while for others it remains a foreign and forever closed book; why the light of faith emanates from some people, while the hearts of others are like a tombstone. This parable reveals to us that the seed – the word of God – is perceived differently by each human heart. The heart is the center of every person's life: the heart sums up everything that a person does, what he thinks, what he strives for, what he desires. We have two memories: the memory of the mind and the memory of the heart. In the memory of the mind, the past is quickly erased, but in the memory of the heart it remains forever. And you know, brothers and sisters, there is an amazing interconnection here: how we live, what our life is, and so is our heart. But as the heart is, so is life...

The famous archpastor, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, wrote about himself that he grew up in a non-religious family and that he was never interested in religious issues, he perceived Christianity as unnecessary polemics and unnecessary disputes. But then one day the Gospel fell into his hands. "I read it several times," he writes, "I realized that until then I had lived a false life, that only now I was born into the world," he realized that this was what his soul had been looking for for so many years.

Here is another example: during the siege of Jerusalem, during the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Jeremiah sent him a charter in which were written the terrible prophecies given to him by God – the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem and the prophecy that resistance to the enemies would be fruitless, and that if the king wanted to save the country, he must submit to Babylon as the embodiment of God's wrath against the Jews for their apostasy from their Lord (Jeremiah 32:32). 1–5). Zedekiah listened attentively to the terrible prediction of his fate. The charter sent by Jeremiah was a scroll, that is, a twisted ribbon of parchment. The king cut off the part he had read and threw it into the fire of the brazier that stood before him, so he listened to the reading of the entire prophecy, and his face did not even tremble. All these words did not touch his heart, and the whole scroll was burned, and the king ordered the prophet to be thrown into prison.

Another example: Christian missionaries told an Indian chief about Christ the Savior, about the Kingdom of Heaven and about hell, and read the Gospel to him. The chief listened to them and asked: "If I do everything written in this book, then where will I go?" He asked again: "And where are my ancestors?" – "They were strangers to Christ, and therefore their souls are in hell." To this the chief said: "My ancestors were famous and rich people, they enjoyed all the pleasures in this world, and you are unfortunate wanderers who have nothing. Of course, I want to be better in hell, together with my ancestors-kings, than with you, beggars, in the Kingdom of Heaven." And throwing the Gospel to the ground, he began to trample it under his feet.

The Lord says that one seed fell by the wayside: caravans go along the road, horsemen pass by, travelers hurry, shepherds drive their flocks of sheep, the ground here becomes hard as stone. What does this mean? It means spiritual pride, which makes a person's heart hard and dead to everything above. The Lord says: "The birds of the air have eaten the grain." By the birds of heaven the interpreters of the Gospel mean demons: they circle above us and try to snatch from our hearts the memory of God and the word of the Holy Gospel.

Brothers and sisters! How many times have we visited the church of God, attended the Liturgy, but many of us have not even learned the nine Beatitudes, which are sung before the Little Entrance. Demons immediately steal sacred words from the soul and heart. He who is intoxicated with spiritual pride, hearing the word of God, as if he did not hear it, as if he were sleeping: whatever you say in the ear of a sleeper, when he wakes up, he will not remember a word.