Do not strive for an inheritance on Earth, but for an inheritance in Heaven – Father Gavril Galev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
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Christ is our true God who, for us and our salvation, voluntarily wished to be incarnate by the Most-Holy Virgin Mary and become a man. He was the same as us in everything, and lived with us as a man on earth, but He did not taste sin. He remained sinless, as He was born, and showed us what we also should be. In fact, Christ is the One whom we should follow as a true model of man and according to Him to become an image of Him. Man, whom God envisaged in the pre-eternal plan when He created the world, was supposed to be like Him, but man fell away. Adam did not achieve that, which he was intended for and that is why humanity is in this current state, a condition not gleaming nor suitable for boasting and admiration.
That is why Christ came to correct that error of Adam. Because He could not watch man become so fallen and captured by sin, by passions and by death, and with His perfect life He overcame these three insurmountable obstacles of ours.
During the days in which we prepare for the great event of Christ’s Resurrection, we remember His voluntary suffering. In today’s Gospel, Christ announces the events to come, to the apostles for the first time.
The Lord prepares the disciples for what must occur by foretelling his imminent death. However, two of them, encouraged by their mother, when they realised, or rather when she realised that Christ would not establish His kingdom, which the Jews wanted and expected to be here on earth, she wished to secure her sons’ future prospects, before she left. They, having obeyed her, wished to sit on His left and right side.
However, the answer was different from what they expected. Christ answered them:
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
They replaid to Him, “We are able.”
So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptised with, you will be baptised;but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”
And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10, 32-45)
Parents are more concerned with setting up their children in this life financially and materially, and they do not care about setting them up spiritually. To acquire spiritual capital and truly overcome all temptations and challenges in life. To acquire the true and eternal values of patience, mercy, fasting, prayer, love and thus acquire an inheritance for the eternal kingdom of heaven. That is far more important than acquiring riches and a high status here on earth. And that is acquired only through Christ, that is, through following His example. When we harmonise our lives with His. Christ did not come to be served but to serve. It was not difficult for Him to place Himself last and serve us all, because love itself prompted Him. And He did it personally, He did not wait for someone else, but He Himself wanted to do it, and He did it.
Therefore anyone who exalts himself and loves prestigious earthly positions, placing himself before others, he acts like these two disciples of His. And we already know the answer. Such a person deprives himself of the proximity of Christ and the eternal kingdom, on the other hand the one who humble and puts himself in the last place, he is the most similar to Christ, and therefore the first will be last and the last first.
Today, we, although aware of the Gospel of Christ that Christ teaches us, unfortunately remain persistent in our madness here on earth to fight for prestigious positions, neglecting or totally not caring about the kingdom of heaven.
People, Christ served not only those who were alive at that time, but also us and every man born of a woman on earth from Adam to the last one to be born. That is how big His love and sacrifice is
And we cannot bear our brother, sister who is next to us, let alone obey and serve them. On the contrary, we desire to, and do the opposite. But let us not forget, Christ is clear that the last will be first and the first last. That, he who serves others will be exalted and saved, and that is for whom the kingdom of heaven is prepared.
The one who makes an effort, the one who drinks the cup that Christ drank, and is baptised with the baptism with which Christ is baptised – he will also be a co-participator in His eternal life. It is the cup from which Christ drinks, the cup of temptation, the cup of patience, the cup of obedience, the cup of love.
Above all, it is love that prompts us to make the effort or not, and according to love we will be judged. According to how much love we have shown in life, we will be placed on the left or right side of Christ, and according to love or rather according to lack of love, we will be rejected to where He is not, in eternal darkness, sorrow and torment.
The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of absolute love and the one who has not learned to love here on earth, the one who has not learned to be last or put himself last here on earth, the one who has not learned to sacrifice himself for his own neighbours here on earth, and even, according to Christ’s words, for his enemies, – unfortunately he will not manage there (in Heaven) and therefore he himself will fall away and will be in the place which he himself determined in eternal torment in the absence of Christ.
May the Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of the Saint Mary of Egypt, grant us to be freed from our captivities, to follow Christ, to place ourselves in the last place and to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
Amen
Father Gavril Galev
abbot of the monastery “St. Kliment Ohridski”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
02 / 04 / 2023
(Saint Photina ,Martyr )
