Do not Block the Light of Christ
27(28) Sunday after Pentecost
Colossians 1:12-18; Luke 14:16-24
The once glorious and powerful emperor Alexander the Great (356-323), who, having united separate Greek city-states into one powerful state, created a strong Greek army, defeated the army of the then strongest Persian Empire in three major battles. Alexander, a pupil of the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle, subdued many countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, and even reached India. He founded several cities, and in many other cities he established centres of Greek culture and administration. In Egypt, one of his generals founded the new dynasty, the Ptolemies, which planted the Greek language and culture into the administration of the state and among the upper echelons of society.
Thus, Alexander the Great felt himself to be the most powerful ruler in the world known to him. One day, he arrived in Athens - the centre of Greek (Hellenic) culture. In Athens at that time lived the eccentric philosopher Diogenes of Sinope (404-323), who led a simple beggar's life and slept in a barrel. Alexander the Great came to Diogenes, who was basking in the sun, and introduced himself as follows:
- I am Alexander the Great, king of kings, who conquered the world, what can I do for you?
Diogenes answered:
- Stand back and do not block the sun from me.
By this, Diogenes expressed not only his wish, but also his conviction that Alexander, with all his titles and power, is less important, less necessary for people, than the sun, which with its rays warms everyone and everything, and everyone on earth from the beginning of time, causes everything to live and grow, so that life on earth exists continuously and forever.
In our Christmas liturgical song (tropar), we call Jesus Christ “the righteous Sun”. By comparing Christ with the Sun, we recognize and understand that just as the Sun primordially warms and gives a guarantee of the primordial physical life of all creatures and the plant world, so Christ spiritually illuminates and warms human life and provides the guarantee of our eternal life in God.
And we also confess that even if this earth and heaven, when the sun also disappears, will be burned up on the day of judgment (Second Epistle General of Peter 3:7), then, according to the apostle's testimony, “according to God's promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, wherein is righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). So our fate in eternity depends more on Christ than on the Sun.
We need to remind ourselves of this truth because in the daily worries and problems of temporal existence, we lose the understanding of the all-encompassing and eternal, or, as our proverb says, we do not see the vast and boundless forest behind the trees.
We are at times lost in the fog of events of our earthly life, by riots, revolutions, and the actions of temporary rulers-dictators, presidents, and their ministers--but all of them (Chu-Eng-lai, Brezhnev, Kissinger, Nixon) are only temporal figures. They will disappear from the political scene, and in a few decades, only researchers of history will be able to recall them.
And Christ--as long as human life will continue--will constantly act, teach His Gospel, preach through millions of priests and preachers, and will influence the lives of hundreds of millions of His followers.
At one time, in the 18th century, the voice of Voltaire (1694-1778), a French philosopher and writer, was listened to by the educated and ruling classes of many European countries. Russian Tsarina Catherine II, Prussian King Frederick II, and French King Louis XV corresponded with him. At that time, he was considered the most educated and perhaps one of the most intelligent people. Voltaire predicted that in 100 years the Church of Christ would disappear from the face of the earth.
More than 200 years have passed since the death of the mentioned Voltaire, and the Church of Christ has spread boundlessly to all countries, to all continents of the world, and it continues to grow steadily, because the way of its development, its life, is enlightened by Christ, the Sun of Truth.
The Church of Christ offers us today Christ's story of the invitation to the wedding feast. From the time of our baptism, we are all called to a spiritual wedding feast in honour of the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Christ draws our attention to the fact that some people refuse to go to this wedding feast. In ancient times, they invented various reasons:
a) “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it.”
b) “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them.”
c) “I have married . . . and therefore I cannot come.” (Luke 14:18-20).
In our time, when we use various machines, the reasons for being absent from Christ's feast, the Divine Liturgy, may be somewhat modified. But all those reasons for absence are evidence of indifference to God's work, indifference to the Lord's Day, which we must keep pure and holy, as God has ordained for us (Exodus 20:11).
For man to live on earth, a person needs “daily bread”, which we ask for in our daily prayer. Through the sun, water, air, and soil, God makes it possible for us to receive this "daily bread" and all the nourishment we need for our bodies.
We must also take care of spiritual nourishment, of bread and drink essential for our souls, as well as for the strengthening and sanctification of our bodies. In the Divine Service, we constantly receive Holy Communion under the forms of bread and wine, and in that same Service, we partake of the Word of God, the Word of Christ.
Just as the body withers and dies without nourishment, so the human soul without spiritual nourishment will wither and die. Christ said, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32)
So, those people who do not have time for Christ's banquet, for His Supper in this earthly life, those who look for reasons to be absent, will never be in unity with Christ. For the Lord said:
“For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” (Luk. 14:24)
Christ indeed calls many people in this world; many have the opportunity to hear Christ's call:
“Come to Me...” (Mat. 11:28); “follow Me” (Luk. 9:23).
Many people hear the call of Christ, which in our time is heard through various means of communication, but do not respond, nor do not pay attention to it.
Christ wants to illuminate the souls of many people with His light, to warm them with His love, but many people hide from the light of Christ, so they will not benefit from Christ's grace and will not taste Christ's gifts.
Some people in this world, not following the call of Christ, try to promote pseudo-scientific theories of human happiness without God. But the transformation of those human theories into practice only leads to cruelty, to severe suffering and hardship on earth, and to hopelessness in eternity.
So, when Christ calls us, let us follow His call, His invitation, for only He is the source of eternal life. The Lord testified:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
