By
His Eminence
Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes
«A man made a great banquet and invited many».
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, many times used parables in order to make the people understand the
heavenly truths which He revealed. Thus, today, He used an image from the daily
life, in order to reveal the importance of man’s participation in the banquet
which is offered by God’s Love, the Holy Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist.
Before us lays a banquet. A great
banquet, which is offered by God. It is a banquet which the Wisdom of God
invites all men saying: ‘Come, eat my bread and drink wine, which I offer to
you”. It is a banquet of which Prophet King David had spoke of: “You have
prepared before Me a banquet contrary to those who make Me sad; You have
anointed My head with oil and Your cup I drunk as the most best”. It is a great
banquet which is offered for our salvation by the Lamb, the Son and Word of
God. A great banquet, in the midst of which the Heavenly Lamb of God invites
everyone saying: “come, for all is prepared”.
In
the midst of the Holy Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist the extreme Love of God
is expressed, Who “desires that all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of truth” (1 Τim.
2:4). The special characteristic of
God’s Love towards man is the offering and the sacrifice. He who loves
sacrifices everything for him whom is loved. He, who loves less, offers less.
But, he who loves more, offers even more. Our Lord Jesus Christ extremely loved
“His own in the world”, and for this reason He offers Himself “for the life and
salvation of the world”. St. John
the Evangelist speaking about the greatness of this divine love says: “Thus God
loved the world, that He gave His own begotten Son, so that whoever believes in
Him shall not parish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15-16).
“Come,
for all is ready”, the Saviour of the
world is inviting all those who call upon His Name, He Who is broken but not
divided, He Who is been eaten but never consumed. But, how many times we found
ourselves distracted by worldly cares; or by vain goals and sinful desires, and
we showed indifference to approach and participate with the Fountain of Life?
How many times we surrendered our hearts to the worshiping of the golden bull,
mammon, the love for money and material riches and we had ignored the heavenly
and most precious wealth? How many times
we had enslaved our hearts within the tentacles of pleasures and carnal sins of
the flesh and we had deprived from ourselves the precious Body and Blood of our
Saviour Jesus Christ? So, St. Paul
spoke well when he said: “You cannot brink from the Lord’s cup and the cup of
demons”.
Our
communion with the Saviour Christ has as its result the forgiveness of our sins
and the offering of eternal Life. But, when man distends himself from Holy
Communion he faces the negative results. Our Lord has assured us that: “Truly,
truly I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His
blood, you cannot have eternal life within yourselves” (John 6:53). So, he who does not partakes of the Body and
Blood of Christ, deprives himself from the eternal life. On the contrary, “he
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood, says the Lord, has eternal life, and I
will raise him at the last day” (John 6:54).
Within
the sacramental life of the Orthodox Church the renewed man in Christ, he who
lives in Christ, according to Christ and for Christ, partakes not only in the Body
of Christ, but has communion with all the members of entire Orthodox Church
around the world. The true Christian knows the essential problems of man and
prays daily to God for their solution. He does not show indifference towards
man’s needs, as the Foolish Rich Man of the Parable, whose land, although,
prospered and gave plentifully, he never thought or even considered for the
needs of his poor neighbors. He just restricted to build greater store-rooms in
order to store all the goods which God had given him. But, his end came as the
result of his ego-centered selfishness.
Today,
unfortunately, we can see the same phenomenon of less participation of the
faithful in Holy Communion. They are satisfied in participating only on Pascha,
Christmas and on the Dormition of the Theotokos. They believe that this is
enough and that they have fulfilled
their religious duties.
But, Holy Communion is
not casually. It is not only for the great feast days. We do not remember
Christ only three times of the year. Christ invites all of us to participate in
His Banquet, because, if we avoid eating we will become ill and even die; in a
similar way when we do not participate in Holy Communion, our soul becomes ill
and cannot resist against sinful passions and desires. He who does not
participate regularly and through proper preparation, is impossible to rise
victorious in the stadium of virtues.
Amongst the Holy
Sacraments, which have been given by our Lord to His Church, four of them are
obligatory for every faithful. In other words, Baptism, for through it a man
becomes a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. Holy Chrismation, for through
it one receives the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Holy Confession and Repentance,
for through it the faithful receive forgiveness of their sins committed after
Baptism. Finally, Holy Communion, for through it the faithful participates in
the Divine Body and the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, receiving
forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Our participation in
the Holy Sacrament must not be done without proper preparation and with a light
heart. It is the Body and Blood of Christ. It is the same Body of our Saviour
which was crucified on the Cross for the salvation of the entire world.
Consequently, we should approach with the fear of God, faith and love.
St. Paul speaking about the way that we should approach the
Lord’s Table stressed that every faithful must examine himself and then to
approach the Lord. Self examination is the beginning of repentance. When man
sees his soul’s inner condition, he acknowledges his mistakes and is leaded to
repentance. Whereas, on the contrary, the egoistic and self-centered man
remains unrepentant and heart-hard. He closes his ears to Christ’s invitation
for repentance and without godly fear approaches the Cup of Life, disregarding
the words of St. Paul: “he who eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup
unworthy, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1st Corinth. 11:27).
Our Lord invites
continuously all men to participate in His Great Banquet of His Divine Love. He
invites us, let us not turn away. He invites us, let us not find thousands of
excuses not to approach Him. He invites us, let us prove that we worthy of this
divine invitation.
Beloved
brothers and sisters in Christ,
Few
days remain to celebrate Christmas. Let
us take this opportunity to practice deeds of repentance. Let us cry for our
sins. Let us enter the Manger of hearts and with the light of self-knowing, let
us examine what had soiled our souls. With the cleansing Grace of the Holy
Spirit, let us clean our souls, so that we will offer to the Divine Infant
Christ the precious gifts of our tears and our repentance. Thus, we will become
worthy travelers towards Bethlehem,
worthy participators of the Great Banquet. Amen.
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