A Homily on the Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast

Today, beloved brothers, at the morning service three parables were read: the first, about the barren fig tree; the second, about a father who had two sons—one of whom, to the father’s request, ‘Child, go and work today in my vineyard,’ answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward thought better of it and went; while the other, to the same request, said, ‘I go,’ and did not go; and, finally, the third parable—about a householder who, having a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, let it out to husbandmen, and went away; and afterward, when the time for gathering the fruit came, he sent his servants to the husbandmen of the vineyard to receive the fruit. The husbandmen in their hardness beat some of the servants, killed others, and at last killed even His Only-begotten Son (Mt 21:18-43). Let us this time speak about the first parable. “Having spent the night in the village of Bethany, in the morning the Lord”, says the Evangelist Matthew, “returning to the city” of Jerusalem, “was hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and finding nothing on it but leaves only, He said to it: let there be no fruit from you ever again. And the fig tree withered at once. Seeing this, the disciples marveled and said: how did the fig tree wither so suddenly? But Jesus answered them: truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but if you say even to this mountain, be lifted up and cast into the sea, it will be. And whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive” (Mt 21:17-22).

The barren fig tree by the road, with leaves only, is I—and you, brother and sister, beloved. Often, early and late, there comes to us the Planter of our life, the Lord Jesus Christ, hungering for our salvation; He comes to satisfy the hunger of our soul, to become for it the bread of life. And, alas, almost always He finds in us only cares about earthly things—leaves only; but of the fruits of faith, of an all-earnest concern for the salvation of our souls, there are none at all. Yet each of us has been planted on the earth precisely in order to bear spiritual fruit. And what, in particular, are these fruits that every person, and especially a Christian, must bear? To this the holy Apostle answers thus: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, mercy, faith” (Gal 5:22). See, brother and sister, what fruits we must unfailingly bear each day to the Planter of our life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let each one look at himself: are you a fruitful fig tree or a barren one? If fruitful, good—press onward; bring the Master more and more fruits, that with them He may nourish you yourself in eternity; if barren—tremble; you are threatened by the curse of the Master of your life, and perhaps very soon He will say to you also: “let there be no fruit from you ever again”. And you will wither at once; all your spiritual powers will be stifled; faith, hope, and love will utterly dry up in you, and “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the” eternal “fire” (Mt 3:10). These words are true and clear as day. They will be fulfilled unfailingly: “for heaven and earth will pass away”, as the days, months, and years pass by, “but the words of the Lord will not pass away” (Mk 13:31). So then, brother and sister, ask yourself: do you daily bring to the Master of your life the fruits of good works, and above all, do you have the queen of virtues—love, fervent love for your Creator and love for your neighbor as for yourself? Do you want to know by what deeds love shows itself? The holy Apostle Paul will answer you for me: “love is longsuffering, is kind; love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not behave disgracefully, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices together with the truth. It covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1Cor 13:4-8). Love is so necessary for a Christian that “if he speaks in all the tongues of men and of angels, but has not love, then he is like sounding brass, for all his eloquence and abundance of words, or like a clanging cymbal. If he has the gift of prophecy and knows all mysteries and the meaning of all the Scriptures, and even—what is most astonishing of all—if he has all faith, so that at his words mountains would move from place to place, but has not love, then he is nothing;” vain are all his knowledge and all his labors without love (1Cor 13:1-3). Why is love so necessary for us? Because “God” Himself “is love” (1Jn 4:8), and we are created in His image, and in the Christian person God dwells. “Or do you not know that Christ is in you, unless indeed you are somehow reprobate?” (2Cor 13:5)? “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1Cor 3:16)? Whoever has fervent love for God and neighbor also has in his soul the other fruits enumerated by the Apostle—joy in the Holy Spirit, peace, longsuffering, goodness, mercy, faith; for in love, as in a seed, all the virtues are contained; for where love is, there is God, the all-perfect Perfection, the fountainhead of goodness, infinite goodness, infinite omnipotence. Whoever has fervent love for God also has such faith as can move mountains, as the Lord said: “and whatever he asks in prayer with faith, he will receive” (Mt 21:22). And so, if we do not want to wither like the fig tree cursed by the Lord, or like grass, and to be cast into the eternal fire, let us strive, beloved brothers, to bring to the Planter of our life the fruits of good works while we have the time, the strength, the means, the occasion. Perhaps a time will come when we would want to do good, but it will be impossible. “While we have time, let us do good to all, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10). Amen.