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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
Today, dear brothers and sisters,
is rich with different sacred recollections.
I'd like at least to list them briefly
before going to main theme of my today's talk
dedicated to the parable about the merciful King and unreasonable slave
which we've heard today in the reading of Gospel according to Matthew
First of all, as you all know, on the 8th of September
according to the new calendar, the holy martyrs Natalie and Adrian are commemorated,
very popular names among Russian people.
These two martyrs and together with them 23 other martyrs,
whose names we do not know, they suffered with them.
This is an affecting story indeed,
although our contemporaries find it difficult to understand
how a person can literaliy one year after his marriage
voluntarily go to suffer,
in other words to sacrifice all human earthly happiness,
with the possible future family
in order to be united with Christ.
That is, theoretically, so to say, we
not even that understand but accept this thought.
But we have to have much more veneration
and love for the first martyrs because if there were no martyrs
there would be no Church of Christ as we know it.
Because as it is said in the Holy Scriptures
the Church is built on the blood of martyrs.
So Saint Adrian and Natalie were a husband and a wife,
and Natalie instead of dissuading her husband
from that supreme and perfect sacrifice of life which he was ready to offer to God,
she would come, support and encourage him
and she herself has earned the Heavenly Kingdom together with him.
It would be good for all of us today to find some quiet time
and to get to know lives of the holy martyrs Adrian and Natalie
to pray to them
that contemporary spouses would have the same love for Christ.
Of course, these days such a sacrifice is not expected
But on the other hand, who knows what expects us in the future
In any event let's pray to them, to these two martyrs-spouses
about good Christian marriages.
In addition, of course, today we celebrate another sacred event in Russian Ecclesiastical history,
the meeting of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God in Moscow.
In the same place where at the end of the 14th century
the icon was brought from the city of Vladimir to Moscow,
now there is a monastery there, Sretensky monastery, at Lubyanka,
right next to the KGB building.
And in this place, where in the 14th century this wonderful icon was met,
in the 20th century in this same place there was shed
tremendous amount of blood by the new martyrs -
people who during the regimes of Lenin and Stalin were executed,
many of them for their faith in Christ.
Vladimir icon of the Mother of God,
of course, played an exceedingly important role in the history of Russia.
In front of this icon the autocephaly was declared,
independance of the Russian Church from the Greek Church.
In front of this icon the first Patriarch of Moscow and all-Russia was elected.
In front of this Vladimir icon after 300 years break there was elected
His Holiness, Confessor, Patriarch Tikhon.
And of course this icon saved Russia
from the Tamerlan's invasion at the end of the 14th century.
According to the Tradition the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God
was painted by Apostle Luke
and it is said, also according to the Tradition, that the board,
on which the icon was written, was taken from the table,
where St Joseph and the Mother of God and the Lord Jesus Christ ate in Nazareth.
Of course, it is hard to check, but this is a beautiful tradition, isn't it?
So, in front of you there is an icon which was woven by our deceased parishioner,
Tamara Robsman.
Tamara Robsman died in 1962. She was a ballerina in her youth.
a rather famous ballerina in Russia. She made all our gonfalons,
our temple icon, the Vladimir icon which is in our dining hall.
And she was doing all this being blind in one eye.
And this Vladimir icon she started but was not able to finish.
So another our parishioner, who now lives in Arizona, Elena Borovskaya,
found this icon when we were sorting out our collection of icons
She herself completed it with this background, these decorations,
and in addition she wrote icons of St Queen Tamara on the sizes
on one side of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God
and on the other side wrote an icon of the holy martyr Natalia
because Natalia Sheffer was another our parishioner,
a famous Byzantinist, specialist in icons,
was a teacher of the handmaid of God, Tamara.
So we have brought out this icon since today
there is the Feast of the Meeting of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God,
and normally it is kept in the altar
and during such days we will be bringing this icon out for veneration by everybody.
And today we have heard the Gospel about the merciful King and vicious servant,
There was a King who decided that it was time to put in order his economic situation,
And he called upon one man who owed him money.
The King says: "Pay me the debt that you owe me,
a long time has passed already".
And this slave, he had no money, he had nothing to repay his debt to the King.
So he fell on his knees and pleaded with the King
to wait, to give him a chance to get the money.
And the King listened to the servant, looked at his tears.
He would have wanted to take him, all his family, lock them up until he returned the money,
but he so convincingly prayed to the King
so that the King not only fulfilled his request to put off the case
but forgave the him everything!
What was the feeling of the servant when he left the palace of the King?
What relief he felt!
It would seam that one would need to go to pray, to thank God
and live in an honest way.
But this slave, before he even left the palace
he saw an old acquaintance who owed him a miserable sum of money.
He approached him, and began to demand it from him,
not only demand, but even began to choke him.
give me immediately what you owe me!
The other, as the servant just did and was forgiven,
was asking him: "Forgive me, give me time"
but the servant did not want to know anything about it,
and ordered authorities to put him in confinement.
And now, friends of this servant, who was forgiven, saw it,
they got terrified, consternaited, and they told the King about him.
So the King heard about it, called the servant again,
And ordered for him and his family to be put into slavery and to confiscate all his belongings.
So punished him.
I think we all understand the meaning of this simple, intelligible parable.
The King in this parable is God, our Lord.
The slave are we.
We all are debtors of God.
But how is that we are debtors of God, some might ask?
Well, firstly, we are all, by God's grace, with the permission,
blessing of the Lord became members of the Church.
We have taken upon us the great name of "Christians".
You and I promised and promise, to live according to the Gospel principles -
unfortunately, we break these principles.
These commandments of God, which are contained in the Gospel,
we pay almost zero attention to them.
So we break. And every time we break, we must remember,
because the Lord always forgives us.
Every day you and I read the prayer "Our Father".
We say: Lord, "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors".
Meaning, Lord, forgive all those who owe us, who sin against us,
who oppose us -
in the same way as we forgive those who act against us.
But do we forgive, dear brothers and sisters?
Or, most probably, do we become similar to that servant who was forgiven by the King?
You know, I will tell you now a paradoxical thought.
Our God is an unfair God.
And not to be unsubstantiated I will read you a quote from the remarkable
Church Father, Saint Isaac the Syrian.
He says: "Do not call God just, because if He were just,
long ago would you have been condemned to eternal torments.
Where is the justice, if you have sinned,
but He sent His only begotten Son so that He took upon Himself your sins,
for you, and instead of you, and suffered the punishment deserved by you".
Glory to God that God is not just,
because if He were just, we would all be punished so hard
for our disgraceful way of life.
There is a joyful paradox in it, isn't it, dear brothers and sisters?
We go and repent at confession, repent at our daily evening, morning prayers.
where it is said in many places: "Lord, I thank you for this given day,
I thank you that you forgive me all my sins without end."
But in our life, how do we act?
At the slightest provocation we get offended
Somebody has said an unguarded word -
we immediately become suspicious.
Even to God we relate in a consumerist way.
Into our repentance we don't include any hearty zeal,
But to ask from God? O, yes, we ask, we ask for health,
We ask that He blesses us with a good house maybe,
with prosperity, that our children behave well.
But to thank God that He forgives us endlessly - we forget.
One priest has said "During liturgy we say six times "Give me, o Lord".
But only one time we say "To Thee, o Lord".
We better say more, "To Thee, o Lord", ask less, pester less,
and we better really give more to the Lord.
How would we give?
Well, to begin with, we have to forgive our debtors.
So that we could indeed sincerely and honestly say:
"Lord, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
Let's do it, dear brothers and sisters.
Our life will be much happier, more joyful, full of grace
If we live and act this way. Amen