Choosing to sit in the last place – Father Gavril Galev
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Why did humanity, reject and crucify Christ? Because He came to bring something new, which was the opposite of that which all of humanity had lived with until then. That is, not to seek the glory of this world, but the glory of Heaven, the eternal glory.
The glory of this world is egoism, pride, vanity. This is expressed in the first instance, by our exaltation, underestimation, or contempt for others. We strive to always put ourselves in the first place and to be perceived as the “best” in everything. However, this whole situation is painful and does not lead us anywhere, except to our own personal ruin and the destruction of ourselves as individuals and of humanity as a community.
That is why Christ had to come, that is why He became man, to re-establish order. However, as you can see, because He did not follow suit, they crucified Him. However, there is only one truth and it remains unchanged. We can invent various religions, we can invent various philosophical systems and teachings, psychological or whatever they may be, but the truth is one and that is, Christ. Therefore, humanity, mainly Christians, especially we Orthodox, should adhere to Christ even though it may cost us our life. And under no circumstances should we detract from Him and His teachings.
These two disciples, having been taught by their mother, who cared more for earthly things, than for heavenly and eternal things, persuaded her children to ask of God for something that was unreasonable. In fact, these thoughts are from the outside, thoughts from the demon, which though we often consider them to be good, can still be bad for us. This always happens if we do not know Christ, if Christ is not our standard, we do not see Him, or rather, we do not have the mind of Christ, which signifies we do not pray constantly and thus we are beguiled, considering a lie as the truth.
And as a response to our imperfection which is primarily in the mind, in pride, in vanity, in having a high opinion of ourselves, the Lord gives us the opposite as a remedy, and that is humility, patience, and service to others. And that is why He says that whoever wants to be first, must be last. That is the life of a Christian. To be last. That is what perfection consists of. This is what love and the freedom that comes from love consist of.
These two disciples, or rather their mother, seeing that Christ will depart from them, tries to provide for them in this world and for Christ to make them ministers. However, we can see that the Lord does not think so. In our daily life we push and fight for worldly positions and wealth, and we neglect or rather completely ignore or reject that which is most important, from heaven and from earth i.e. that which is from God.
However, we should always seek God in our lives and always measure ourselves according to Christ, that is: “how similar are we to Him?” Just as He lived and left us this as a tradition; to not put ourselves in the first place but in the last place.
Whenever we choose God, whenever we put ourselves in last place or humble ourselves before a brother or sister with whom we have an argument about something, we always win. Then we allow God’s grace to work in us and between us and then, in the given situation, the Lord takes things under His control. Insofar as we consider things, thinking that we have everything under our control, we are essentially losing. Therefore, we need to allow the Lord to work in us, that is, to fulfil God’s commandments, to love each other, to respect each other, to humble ourselves and in this way God will work in our lives. And God will lead us and God will be our God and Father.
And one pedagogical – psychological message that I want to leave you with: “Woe to the one who will not learn,” that is, the parents who will not teach their children to learn to accept the last place. They will have a lot of suffering in life, unfortunately.
The worst thing is that the spirit of today’s society is imposing on us to constantly praise our children, to reward them, that is, to put them in the first place, thereby increasing pride and vanity in themselves, and by doing that we actually do something bad.
And therefore, always teach children as the Lord teaches us; to be patient, quiet, and unobtrusive and to learn to accept the last place, just as we, as adults, who have not learned in our time to be humble and to learn.
Father Gabriel Galev
Abbot of the Monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
05 / 04 / 2025
