In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

There is a big contrast today between the attitude of the father, and the attitude of the elder brother in the parable that the Saviour is telling. The loving father, as we know, was waiting, and praying for the return of his erring son, so much so that when the son was making his return in penitence, hoping only for compassion, and mercy from his father somehow, he got back his place in the family, and his relationship with his father. He was returned to being his son, even though he had lost his inheritance, as it were.

You can notice that when the elder brother is criticising the father, he says to the father: “this son of yours”. He doesn’t say: “my brother”. He says: “this son of yours”. The elder son had already thrown away his brother. It’s a very important lesson for us because in our hymns we are always equating God, our heavenly Father, with that father in this parable who is waiting for the return of his erring child.

We are the erring child. The loving, heavenly Father is always waiting for us to come back. He is waiting for us to wake up. He is waiting for us to come back to His loving arms, to life. That’s why He gave His Only-begotten Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the Incarnation, in order to open that door finally for us, to break down all barriers so that we could make the journey home much more easily.

We still, after two thousand years of communal, corporate experience of the Only-begotten Son, our Saviour, have difficulty accepting that God loves us like that. We still have this tendency to wander, to look elsewhere, to do something else because we have a hard time accepting that God can love us like this. Sometimes we get into a mindset or disposition of soul, and heart which is so dark that we think that God cannot forgive us. We fall into the condition of beating ourselves up, and such a condition is very poisonous. In fact it is deadly poisonous. The fact is that God is quite capable of forgiving, no matter how horrible the things are that we have done, if we turn to Him, take His hand, and let Him. The only way that God cannot forgive you or me or anyone is if we refuse to let Him. He doesn’t force this forgiveness, and this love on us. He waits for us, like this loving father. This loving father did not go chasing his son everywhere. He waited. His heart was always with his son, and he waited. There are many people, in fact, who have children who have difficulties in life, and who are in exactly that same position with their children even today. It is important for us to remember this lesson of love, the love of our heavenly Father for us, and His readiness to accept us when we turn about. We cannot be like that elder brother, because if the elder brother takes over in our lives, we are going to be lost also. The elder brother did not recognise the love of his father for what it was, and he condemned his brother, disowned his brother when his father did not.

We have to be very careful also about ourselves. We have to remember two simple examples of the depth of God’s readiness, and willingness to forgive. There is the example of the Apostle Paul who had blood on his hands: he was responsible for the deaths of many. He stood by at the death of the Archdeacon, and first Martyr Stephen. God forgave him, turned him about, and made him a powerful witness for His love. There is also the example of St Mary of Egypt. In her life before her repentance, she delighted in bringing people down with her. She said so – it’s in her Life. She delighted in dragging people down. Then she met the Lord face to face, and she turned about. She is now your, and my prime example of repentance (not that we all have to go, and live in the Jordanian desert for forty years, and live as she did). However, we do need to repent, to turn about from death to life, from darkness to light, from self-love to the love of God as she did.

If you are tempted to think that you are unforgivable, remember those two persons in particular. There is nothing that the Lord is unwilling or unready to forgive. We have to be ready to let Him work this forgiveness in us. We have to accept it.

We live in a society that is completely out of balance. It is completely inside out, and upside down. Remember those words of the Apostle Paul today when he is talking about the right attitude towards our bodies, and how we should be behaving towards our bodies. He says: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” Our bodies need to be treated like the temple of the Holy Spirit. We need to look after them with the right attitude – not as our own possessions, but as God’s gift to us. Indeed it is His gift to us. If we mistreat our bodies, it’s a sign that our hearts somehow are not in order, and something needs to be straightened out. I know this from my own personal experience quite well. How we behave towards ourselves, and our bodies is a symptom of how we really are inside. If we are mistreating our bodies, it’s a strong sign that somehow there is something out of kilter in our hearts. There is something in our hearts that makes us against ourselves. We are condemning ourselves; we are angry at ourselves for something or other. It’s important for us to find out what it is, and put it straight with the Lord, and put everything into its proper perspective.

On the other hand, we live in a society that deifies human bodies, and expects impossible things of human bodies. The majority of us large Canadians have a tendency to appear on the large size. On the fashion programmes on Air Canada TV, you see anorexic people wearing clothes most Canadians couldn’t fit into, because Canadians are too well fed. You don’t see real people – like most of us who tend to put on some extra weight.

Nevertheless, last week I had really a strong experience of the absolute extreme of North American distortion, and forgetfulness of God. In Las Vegas there was the Assembly of the Diocese of the West to choose their nominations for their next bishop, and I had to represent the Metropolitan there. You cannot escape what is the mainspring of that city. I could not recognise it as the same city that I saw in 1979 when I passed through. It is a “counterfeit” city whose main economy is based on what is fake – imitation this or imitation that. It is Disneyland for adults. But it is not Disneyland either. When you stand in the centre of that city, it is inescapable to see that most of what the centre of the city is about, is geared to dragging people to the bottom. Gambling is the most addictive of all the addictions. It seems that you cannot go to any activity, such as a play, without going through a casino hotel. The major attractions there are geared to hooking people, and dragging them down. When it comes to harlots (on which the young man in today’s Gospel wasted his inheritance), this so-called “profession” is completely legal in that city, and advertised. Sad to say, this is the most visible sign of what is distorted in our North American society. There is so much that is geared to dragging people down into a pit.

When we live in an environment like this, it really important for you, and for me to remember again what the Apostle is saying to us this morning. It is important for us to go home, and reread the Epistle to the Corinthians. We must get these words into our hearts, and remember what is first in our life. First in our life as Christians is Jesus Christ. We love Him because He loves us, just as the Apostle said (1 John 4:19). Our relationship with Him is a relationship of love. In that relationship everything else plays out in a life-giving way. We don’t need to be enslaved to anything. We don’t need to be addicted to anything because the love of Jesus Christ can set us free from all these things. The love of Jesus Christ can turn our attitude towards ourselves about. The love of Jesus Christ can clean up our hearts. The love of Jesus Christ can help us, and enable us in every way to have a healthy attitude towards ourselves, each other, creation, and everything. The love of Jesus Christ can help us to be joyful, peaceful, strong, stable, loving, and healthy members of the society in which we live. We can be signs to other people that there is a better, healthier way than being afraid of weighing a kilogram or two extra, looking a little large, and not being absolutely gorgeous. However, being alive instead, alive, and life-giving in Christ, spreading His joy, and His life is what truly matters.

As we approach Great Lent, it is really important that we don’t enter it attacking ourselves for our shortcomings. It’s really important that we enter Great Lent simply saying to the Lord, and to all our brothers, and sisters: I’m sorry. I didn’t live up to what I could do, and by your prayers, I will try to do better. I will try in Christ to be more authentically me as He created me to be. Before we enter Great Lent, I also have to say that to you. I have to say to you that because of my short-sightedness, forgetfulness, fear, and other similar frailties, I have not been able to live up to what I am supposed to be as your bishop to you, and to the diocese. I ask your forgiveness, and your prayer, and I will do the best I can, by your prayers, to listen better to the Lord in the coming year, and especially during this Great Lent. I will pray for you, too, so that we all together will be able to come to Pascha with joy, and life. May Pascha, therefore, this year bear great fruit in the hearts, minds, and bodies of all of us so that everything about us may more and more glorify our Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America