"Destruction will come upon them suddenly,... and they shall not escape" (1 Thess. 5:3). – warns the Apostle. And just as the prodigal son, having bowed his head in repentance, expects only forgiveness, so does not everyone who has come from the fall, pray only for deliverance from the fiery Gehenna? The sinner expects little, but God grants him the inexhaustible riches of His blessings. The sinner has just thought about repentance, and the Father is already hastening to meet him: "Before you call on Me, I will say, 'Behold, I have come.'

This is what happened to the prodigal son, and it happens to us to this day. When we bring repentance, we do not hear the words of God's response, but almost immediately we see God's love for mankind manifested in deeds in our lives. "Bring him the first garment," which he lost through disobedience, and our soul feels the joy of the freedom it has received. "Give me also boots on his nose," so that he may not be subjected to a fatal wound from the serpent, but so that he may tread on the serpent and the scorpion and on all the power of the enemy.

And for some time we are sheltered by God's mercy from sinful violence and tangibly enter into the freedom of sonship. In this way God's forgiveness is testified to us.  My dear ones, let us remember that only piety and reverence keep us on the paths of salvation. Piety is the fulfillment of God's commandments, reverence is the memory of God in all manifestations of life in ourselves and around us.

When we lose reverence, we trample on God's love. The remembrance of God and the remembrance of death are the salvific bridle that protects us from destruction, granting contrition of heart and repentance, until we have yet attained filial love for our Creator. He who has renounced godliness does not take pleasure in the evil pleasures themselves, but condemns himself to constant pursuit, and to insatiability in them.

As long as the immortal soul is not completely impoverished, material abundance only sets off the approaching catastrophe of its destruction. In the Gospel parable, both sons and hirelings are next to the Father!  And who are you and me? Sons by baptism, mercenaries in life. The Divine Scriptures refer to sons those who give themselves up to righteousness and piety with their whole being, while those hirelings are those who understand the good, know the teaching, but do not give themselves to it entirely with their hearts and are not guided in the organization of their lives by the will of God.

And we all, so easily and almost constantly, lose our sonship in the vanity of life and its enticements, thoughtlessly preferring the lot of a mercenary for ourselves. And the mercy of God does not forget about the hireling, but the Lord waits, waits for those who once for the sake of His sonship rejected Satan and all his works. Let us constantly remember that repentance and prayer protect the lamps of our faith, and return us to the roof of the Heavenly Father.

And for us repentant sinners, as for His children, the Lord will rejoice, and for us He will say: "For this My son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found." "O Master, Lord, Lover of mankind, Only-begotten Son of God, we have sinned in heaven and before Thee, and are no longer worthy to be called Thy sons, but we trust in Thy mercies, we have as a pledge of Thy love for mankind Thy precious Cross, which Thou hast endured for our sake, we have mediators of Thy kindness, the former harlot and former thief.

Through them, we and all sinners will hasten to resort to Thy love for mankind. As Thou hast made them glorious and blessed, O Lord, so have mercy on us who fall down to Thee. As Thou didst raise up the dead when Thou wast crucified on the Cross, so raise us also, slain by sin, according to Thy great love for mankind, that we may be together with those redeemed at the cost of Thy resurrection." Amen.

  Sermon on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son This sermon was not published during Fr. John's lifetime In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit My friends, sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, the 2nd week before Great Lent is called the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This parable was told to the audience by the Savior Himself and is preceded by the words: "Thus I say to you, joy is before the angels of God over the one sinner who repents."

The time of repentance is approaching, and the Heavenly Father assures us that for the sinner who has realized his miserable condition, who seeks God's mercy in repentance, "we must rejoice and be glad, for he was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found." Sin is death. Repentance is a return to life. Let us be imbued with this truth, and fasting will become for us a time of healing of the soul, and the Lord will rejoice over us, repentant sinners.

And I would tell you that the parable of the prodigal son is a parable of Love, of the incomprehensible, boundless Love of the Heavenly Father for us, sinners and His prodigal children. Having received by baptism the pledge of salvation adopted by God, we are no longer slaves, not hireling, but sons and daughters – heirs of the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. The Father's love embraces us, it is divine and powerful—merciful, long-suffering, and most importantly, it never ceases.

It is able to call us from the bottom of hell and restore the dignity of a son to all those who have fallen to the Father in repentance. Who does not remember moments in his life when we, like the prodigal son, rejected God's Love, breaking free from our insane desires and plans? Who, having received the inheritance of God's gifts – deep intellect and talents – did not appropriate them for himself, forgetting about the giver and using what was given for evil both to himself and often to people?

Who has accepted the Word of God as his guide through life completely, without distorting it or rejecting it completely? And the Father is still waiting. The father, in whose hand is the almighty Providence for every person, who with one wave can return the lost child to the mind of the Truth, hesitates, giving the longed-for freedom demanded by the son. The Father's love awaits only reciprocal love, without depriving us of our freedom of choice in life.

Father continues to love and wait for our return. In the parable, the Father and His two sons. The eldest, who has grown up in his father's house, hears from the Father: "Child! You are always with me, and all my essence is yours." The lesser, as requiring the Father's special care for himself, the most beloved. And so he, the youngest, not understanding all the blessings of life under the protection of his father's love, not knowing all the vicissitudes and rapids of the sea of life, not knowing himself, desired freedom, so that without the father's good advice and supervision he could set out on a journey of life.