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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
All that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about
during His short life on earth, especially, of course,
in the last 3.5 years of his public preaching,
these words, how to describe them?
What Christ said, no one spoke the way He did.
Because when Christ spoke,
God Himself communicated with people, the Logos.
In Greek Logos means "the Word", "the Word of God."
And every word of God has not only one meaning.
Every word we have heard from the mouth of the Savior,
we must understand wider and deeper than we first imagined.
That's why reading Scripture is extremely important and necessary,
even if we've read the Scripture many times, many times heard it,
believe me, if we prayerfully, carefully read
different chapters of the four Gospels,
again and again you will see that a new meaning is revealing itself.
Take, for example, today's Gospel reading - about the rich young ruler.
This Gospel reading is read several times a year, on Sundays, I mean.
It is no coincidence, because the Church wants by this reading
to bring to our mind something special,
as the saying goes: "Repetition is the mother of learning."
In this Gospel we have heard about how a rich young man
came to the Savior and wanted to know what he should do
to save his soul, to attain salvation.
And the Lord says: "Keep the commandments."
Well, Christ has listed four commandments
from the Decalogue of the prophet Moses,
to which the boy, the young man replied:
"O Lord, from my youth I fulfill these commandments,
what am I still lacking?"
And the Lord said, "If you want to be perfect,
if you want to enter into life,
go, sell your possessions and follow Me."
Well, this rich young man could not go after Christ,
could not leave his wealth and follow Christ.
And he walked away, turned away from the Savior.
As I have said many times, we do not know, maybe then he came back,
having thought thoroughly over all that the Lord told him.
We do not know. But when the Lord said to the people around,
"That a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven",
all those around said: "Lord, what is the hope? Who can be saved?"
And here the Lord says such comforting words,
especially to us, sinners, modern people:
"With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."
So, what I want to draw your attention to?
Of course, the words of the Savior about the wealth
can and should be understood in a literal sense.
Indeed, it is hard for a rich man to give up his wealth,
abandon it and follow Christ entirely.
But here, in these words there are also many other meanings.
What is wealth? Well, wealth, primarily is in dollars, gold, silver,
any securities, semi-precious stones, precious.
It's all clear. But it is necessary to understand wealth wider.
Wealth is any interest in life, which absorbs us.
This can become a sport - football, basketball.
We think only about it, we dream and see only it.
It interferes with prayer, it prevents us from coming to the Church because:
"What? I cannot miss the game, which I have dreamed about for so long!"
That is, this interest, whether it is sports, whether it is collecting,
some exhibition coincides with the Divine Liturgy this Sunday.
"I'm not going to the Church service,
because this is a so unique exhibition,
I must necessarily be there,
maybe I'll find something new for my collection!"
Do you understand where I am leading to?
Any interest that stands between us and God, it becomes our wealth.
But you and I, mostly, we are not rich people. We have average wealth,
but still, how difficult it is for us
to part even with a small amount of money
in order to do something good -
to help a needy person, or to donate to a good charity.
Now many of us get a lot of requests in the mail, on the phone.
And our heart shrinks. Why does it shrink?
Because we refuse to donate even a little,
and therefore the heart shrinks, because in this our wealth is.
It is almost impossible for us to part with it.
This prevents us to come freely, with open hands to the Lord.
Here, at the end of today's service, we will be collecting money
for the seven-year-old Siberian, Artyom, who who has a heart defect.
Parents, of course, living in Siberia, probably
already spent a huge amount of money. We will be collecting for him.
And let everyone think,
"How will I react to this request of his parents?
Will my heart shrink?
Will I take one dollar out of my wallet
or will still allow myself a little more?"
Believe me, dear brothers and sisters, if you give a little bit more,
you, first, will execute the will of God, and will be on your way to the victory,
to the overcoming of those obstacles that stand
between us and between Christ.
And if you can not do this, do not be disheartened.
Continue to pray, remembering, that
"With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."
If there is God's will, if there is our desire,
it might be that we as well, over time, as the rich young man,
will come back to Christ, and follow Him.
And most importantly, dear brothers and sisters,
when we think about all of this - let's not forget
that we will all die. We will all die.
This is where our whole life leads.
And what an answer will we give at the Christ's Last Judgement,
if we have not had time to do here what is necessary
to remove all obstacles that stand between us and God?
So that our wealth was where it should be.
We need to get richer in God, not in our earthly passions.
Amen.