An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers, on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, 7534/2026.
Dearest to Christ,
There was an historical photo on the internet this week of thousands of Russians gathered to celebrate joyously the 300thanniversary of the Romanov dynasty. Only several years later, the crowds would ecstatically be celebrating the revolution and the removal of God’s anointed, the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas who with his family would little more than a year later die at the hands of the God-hating Communists. Where were all those who had professed allegiance to the Christian monarch? Swept away by what became a hellscape of atheist persecution of the Church.
On this day of the Prodigal Son, as we look toward Great Lent, we also commemorate the Holy Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. And there is a connection. Whole nations and societies can become prodigal or wandering in sin, and it starts with each of us not being faithful. First of all, the antidote involves being faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Body the Church. The claim to go it alone outside of the Church He established is a false claim that Christianity can exist outside of the Church. And this is the gateway to atheism, nihilism, revolution, and many sins that bedevil society today, both collectively and individually.
St. Hilarion Troitskoy, a martyr to atheistic Bolshevism, wrote on this topic under the title, “There is no Christianity without the Church.” For before and during the worldly seeming triumph of Bolshevist atheism came the false belief that there can be Christianity without the Church. This is a great mass delusion and temptation in America in our own time as well. It comes from ignorance and malice against the Orthodox Church, the Body of Christ in human history. It leads to efforts to change Orthodox tradition in worldly ways, and to throw away any sense of the one holy catholic and apostolic church as a reality, in order to support the assertion of self-will.
In Russia under Communism, it came with people dissociating themselves from the Church. They as in the West today wanted to stay home on weekends with friends and families comfortably, and not attend Vigil and Liturgy. They said they could pray in their own thoughts and in their own ways, and read at home on their own about spiritual things, and leave off fasting while they had their own meditative feelings. But all this is a trap by the devil to separate us, and pick us off, like lone wandering sheep by a wolf. The Good Shepherd Jesus Christ comes to rescue and protect us, and He does this most of all by offering us His Body and Blood in the Church.
St. Hilarion the Martyr wrote, “The life of Christ the Saviour presents the reader of the Holy Gospels with numerous great moments which fill the soul with some special sense of grandeur. But perhaps the greatest moment in the life of all mankind was that occasion when, in the darkness of a southern night, under the hanging arches of trees just turning green, through which heaven itself seemed to be looking at the sinful earth with twinkling stars, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His High Priestly prayer, proclaimed: Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. . . . I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:11; 20–21) Special attention must be focused upon these words of Christ, for in them the essence of all Christianity is clearly defined. Christianity is not some sort of abstract teaching which is accepted by the mind and found by each person separately. On the contrary, Christianity is a life in which separate persons are so united among themselves that their unity can be likened to the unity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Christ did not pray only that His teaching be preserved so that it would spread throughout the universe. He prayed for the unification of all those believing in Him. Christ prayed to His heavenly Father for the establishment, more correctly for the restoration, on earth of the natural unity of all mankind. Mankind was created from one common origin and of one source (cf. Acts 17:26).”
Wandering from the unity of the Church is the temptation of the prodigal son for us today. Of the parable of the Prodigal Son, St. Theophan writes in one of his pre-Lenten homilies:
“This is how every sinful fall and every man’s descent from a good state to a worse, confused, passionate state is accomplished. It always begins with a trifle, and a trifle that is plausible. The enemy knows that sin in its true form is repulsive, and therefore he does not directly lead you into it, but begins from afar, almost always covering his first attacks with the appearance of good. Then, little by little, the enemy sows impure thoughts and the heat of desire, shaking the strength of the will to oppose him and weakening its supports, until there forms in the man’s heart a secret inclination to sin, after which it is almost a matter of opportunity, and he is ready to sin in deed. And then, there is sin after sin and the repetition of the bitter fate of the prodigal’s fall. Keeping this in mind, of course, each of us will surely impose on ourselves the responsibility to strictly fulfill the command of the Apostle: “Be sober, be vigilant” (1 Pet 5:8)! Look in and around yourself and note the rounds and strivings of the enemy, who seeks to devour every zealot for goodness and purity. The first trick of the enemy is to confuse the thoughts. Usually he begins to sow only one such thought, but does so in order that it touches the heart and settles therein. As soon as he succeeds in this, immediately beside this insignificant, if not always bad thought, he gathers a whole cloud of secondary thoughts. In this way, the hitherto pure and bright atmosphere of the soul is obscured. By this the enemy prepares for himself a place and space for activity, and soon begins to act in this fog, striking the soul with passionate provocations, which leave wound after wound…. Then and there the enemy sits close to the heart and little by little begins to arouse passionate movements there. This is already the second step. Look out for this! If you notice this, stop, go no further, because anything further is already very bad. Perhaps we might not succeed in noticing this confusion of thoughts, because we happened to be involuntarily occupied with many things. But how can we not notice the movement of passions, especially when the intention to not yield to them is still intact. If this is very difficult for you, I will show you an even more tangible sign. Take note: as soon as a cooling of the heart occurs, as a result of being carried away by one thought, and then being confused by many, know that wounds and scabs have already begun in the heart, although they are not yet entirely noticeable. The cooling of the heart toward pleasing God is already more than halfway to a fall, while others say that it is a sure fall. After this, you will see what the matter involves on our side: do not permit the first alluring thought to reach the heart and do not accept them. By rejecting the first thought, you will destroy all the machinations of the enemy and cut off every opportunity for him to act on you and tempt you….If our foremother Eve had immediately driven away the tempting serpent, she would not have fallen. But instead, she entered further and further into conversation with him, became entangled in the net of the enemy and fell. Such is every fall.”
Brothers and sisters, we must keep our hearts warm to ward off temptations, and we do so through staying connected to our Lord in His Church. Let not the devil during this approach to Great Lent tempt you through spiritual warfare to separate yourself from the body of Christ, His Church, in any way, by slothfulness or pride. As St. Hilarion said, there is no Christianity without the Church. The sin of those who martyred millions of believers under Communism started with the argument and temptation that there can be Christianity without the Church. The rest unravels quickly. But God helps. Like the Prodigal Son, both individuals and nations can turn back into the loving arms of God. The Good News of the Gospel is that there is redemption in Him, no matter how bad the situation. St. Cyprian of Carthage said, to have God as our Father, we must have the Church as our Mother. Let us keep the warmth in our heart of the Prodigal’s Father, the warmth in our heart of the Church’s martyrs under Communism, and the warmth in our heart of God’s love letting that light shine in mission work for an Orthodox Christian America. Glory to God for all things!
The Reading from the
Holy Gospel according to Luke,
§79 [15:11-32]
The Lord said this parable: ‘A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.” And he divided unto them his estate. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine ate, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, “Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.” And he was angry and would not go in; therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, “Lo, these many years have I served thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.” And he said unto him, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”’
Holy Gospel according to Luke,
§106 [21:12-19]
The Lord said to His disciples, ‘Beware of men, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, and you will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. And it shall turn to you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand what ye shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends, and some of you they shall cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated by all men for My name’s sake. But there shall not a hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.’