Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Finding the World for Real!

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

(Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost)

The parable that Jesus relates in today’s Gospel is very meaningful indeed. For example it reminds us of something that we probably do not usually like to think about. It calls us to awareness the inescapable fact that one day we must leave this world which we love and which is so familiar to us. In this way it invites us to think deeply about the meaning of the things we do and the things to which we attach ourselves.

But we ought to be aware of an error that is easily made when we think about this parable or about other teachings that highlight the fragility of earthly life. That error is to look at the world in a dualistic fashion. Dualists divide all reality into two parts: the good and the bad. They usually call the spirit good and the body bad. Radical dualists have gone so far as to say that this world was created by satan and even that he imprisoned a part of God in it and we must liberate it by our spiritual activities. According to them God is the creator only of the invisible world of the spirit - the truly good and eternal world.

Jesus teaches us something quite different. He proclaims that this world is the beloved creation of God, that God is pleased with what He has made and that the supreme sacrifice which Jesus Himself offered upon the earth on that hill of Golgotha was given to liberate the world from the slavery which derives from the ignorance of the divine origin and glorious destiny of all that God has made.

We must never stop looking at the world with wonder and love! Let us keep on reminding ourselves and everyone that it is the creation and even the manifestation (just as every work of art is a manifestation of the artist who brought it into being) of the wisdom, the beauty and the glory of God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this way the world itself turns us towards God and does not become a reason for us to forget about God.

The poor "rich" man in today’s parable made the mistake of looking at this world without thinking of God - without thanking Him for His generosity, without asking what he could do to make himself truly rich by sharing his good fortune with others instead of thinking only about his own ease.

Do we not imitate this poor man? Let us love God and His world! Let’s love our life in this world - this precious divine gift to us. Let’s use it well. And when the time comes for us to leave this world we shall realize that we are not losing the world, for we shall find it in all its true glory in that Kingdom of which this, with all its splendour is only a faint copy, like a candle is a copy of the glorious life-giving sun! And we shall never lose it.

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