Another seed fell on the stony ground, the sun warmed it, and the seed soon sprouted, but since there was no earth here to take deep roots, the sprout soon withered. Here the Lord speaks of sensual, dreamy people who enthusiastically accept the Gospel: sometimes they even cry when reading this Holy Book, but these people are weak-willed, admiring the Holy Scriptures, they do not even think of fulfilling it in their lives. When trials and temptations come, they easily abandon the word of God, which used to touch their hearts so much. A stone lightly covered with earth refers to those people for whom the fulfillment of the commandments of the Holy Scriptures seems to be an unbearable labor, and in trials or persecutions they abandon their faith as a heavy burden.

The other seed fell into the thorns. Thorns are our passions, a person's attachment to earthly things. The life of such a person is all in vanity, he is like an ant that runs around an anthill. In the noise of worldly cares, he does not hear the voice of the Spirit, sensual passions stifle faith in his heart. Such people may also consider themselves Christians, but faith is somewhere in the "corner" of their consciousness – so sometimes we put some unnecessary thing in the corner of the room: it is a pity for us to throw it away completely, and at the same time we cannot find a use for it. And so, brothers and sisters, these people often "wake up" at the edge of the grave and only then realize how empty and aimless their life was. For many, the grave becomes a trap – a trap in which a person suddenly finds himself, like some hunted animal in a pit covered with branches from above. Death comes to them unexpectedly, when they think least of all about it.

But behold, another seed fell into good land. The Lord said to Adam: "Preserve and nurture the Garden of Eden" (Gen. 2:15). The Holy Fathers say that the garden is our heart. The main thing in the life of a Christian is to preserve the purity of his heart. The heart is the source of life. Thus, here in the parable it is said about those who have kept the word of God in a good, kind heart. And what is a "kind heart"? It is the ability to have compassion for another, to rejoice in his joy and to grieve with his sorrow. A sinner loves himself to the point of forgetting God and his neighbor. But the righteous forget himself for the sake of love for God and for people. Therefore, Christian love is always sacrificial.

Brothers and sisters! The parable that you have heard today speaks of the great significance of the Holy Gospel for us. The sower is the Lord Himself, but the Holy Church continues to preach the word of God, so the sowing of seeds continues. The Holy Fathers command us to read the Gospel daily. Before reading, one must pray in order to understand the Holy Scriptures correctly, in order to remember them; usually they read a prayer to the Heavenly King..., because only by the action of grace is the word of God revealed to the heart. Then one should not immediately begin to read, but wait until one's thoughts have subsided, one must tear one's mind and heart away from all worldly, vain, and temporary things. The Holy Fathers teach that if a person can, he should read the Gospel while standing, and the Psalter and the Epistle can be read while sitting. Then, you need to read the Scriptures slowly, preferably aloud. In ancient times, the Holy Scriptures were read aloud, quietly and unhurriedly. It is good if a Christian memorizes this or that verse from the Holy Gospel. Some learn the entire Gospel in this way – gradually, beginning with the first chapter, and some learn the Savior's discourses and His commandments at the beginning. After reading the Gospel, you need to read the prayer It is truly meet, and then not immediately begin to do the things of life, but first think about how to fulfill what you have read in life: you need to perceive the Gospel as if Christ Himself spoke to us, as if all the words that we have read are directed, addressed to us personally. We must think about how to fulfill everything we read during the day. St. Theophan the Recluse writes that it is better to read the Gospel in the morning, the Lives of the Saints in the afternoon, and the works of the Fathers in the evening, before going to bed. But the Holy Scriptures can be read at any time. The famous theologian Vladimir Lossky did not part with the Bible at all: he read it every free minute, even when he was standing at a bus stop and waiting for a bus – and then he took out a small book that he carried with him and, standing in a crowd of people, read it, not paying attention to what was happening around him.

Brothers and sisters! The Lord says that only a pure, gracious heart is receptive to the word of God. But remember: the very word of God protects our hearts from malice and impurity.

Amen.

On the Unrighteous Steward

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

Brothers and sisters! Today you heard the parable of a man who suddenly became very rich. His field brought an unusually rich harvest (Luke 12:16-21).

This man did not think about his neighbors – about those who needed his help, nor did he think about giving a tenth to the Temple according to the law of Moses. The only thing that troubled him was that the barns he had would not be able to hold all the wheat; And then he decided to build new ones, cover them to the top with grain and spend the rest of his life in feasts and entertainments.

But that same night the rich man died suddenly, and the riches, like a ghost, disappeared, melted; his eyes were covered with a veil of death.

This parable is closely related to another, one of the most mysterious and difficult to understand: the unjust steward. It is, as it were, the key to its understanding.

A certain man had a steward who dishonorably squandered his possessions (Luke 16:1-13). When he learned of this, he summoned the steward and said, "I have heard unkind rumors about you, and I have decided to remove you from the place." The saddened steward began to grieve bitterly. "What should I do now," he seemed to ask himself, "I can't dig, I'm ashamed to ask; I know what I will do while I am still listed as a steward. I will call my master's debtors, and lessen their debts, and then, when I am driven out of this house, they may perhaps receive me under their roof." So he said and so he did.