The Lord Jesus Christ
says:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because
ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say,
If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the
blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of
them which killed the prophets.
(Matthew 23:29-31). This is one of the difficult places of the
Gospel that can cause misunderstanding, so it requires thoughtfulness. Does Christ rebuke those
who honour the Saints? Should new generations learn to lose their historical memory?
But we, the Orthodox Christians, honour the saints and try to preserve the historical memory in
readiness to spread the Gospel and go to the Lord. And, of course, what is said to the Pharisees,
the enemies of Christ, concerns not only them, but is an example for all, including all nations.
What is Christ talking about? About the pride that blinds. Let's look closely.
Not the sons (descendants) of the prophets and the righteous build and decorate their tombs and
monuments. and indeed, the prophets were driven where they preached, which prevented them from
having many offspring, and even when they were, they were always a small minority compared to
those whom they had exposed. Similarly, there have always been fewer righteous than other people,
and therefore have a special honor, which at the same time testifies that it is not the descendants
of the righteous who honor them, but all other people who were not righteous. And now the Pharisees
assigned
to themselves the virtues of prophets and righteous to justify themselves at a time
when they were in fact descendants of sinners. This blindness closed the path of repentance to them,
which is why Christ was crucified.
The prophets fought for the welfare of the people, and the people subsequently assigned themselves the virtues of the prophets, forgetting the repentance we see in the example of the Pharisees. From this, the Living and Risen Christ warns us all, glory be to Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit! Amen.
Date: 21st February, 2022
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