š¬š§ Glory be to Jesus Christ! š
1 Corinthians XVI, 4 – āĪµĪ¼ĪæĪ¹ā – āemoiā - (with) āmeā.
1 Corinthians XVI, 12 – āĪµĻ ĪŗĪ±Ī¹ĻĪ·ĻĪ·ā – āeukaireseā – āwill have a good opportunity, a good time, leisure timeā.
In general, the reading is about the plans of Paul and his close co-workers to visit the Corinthians. From the point of view of faith, it is an instructive text that it is reasonable to take into account various circumstances, including time and occasion.
The parable of the two sons. The sons refer to different people who have two different attitudes to Godās will, the will of the Father.
The question Who fulfilled it?
refers to the final result, since it
was the decisive one. In the parable, the sonsā agreement/disagreement
is connected with the so-called self-identification of a person – how a
person relates to God and how important this is to him or her. Consent
means that a person considers themselves to be a believer and a devout
person, to a certain extent it matters to them, they perceive themselves
as such. Disagreement, on the contrary, means that a person does not
want to associate themselves with God, at least at some stage of their
life, i.e.Ā they are moving away from God and towards sin or directly
into sin.
Instead, here we see the importance of repentance. Many sinful people who had fallen away from God and did not consider themselves righteous and devout were converted by John the Baptistās preaching of repentance, but those who considered themselves devout and righteous did not want to do so, because their own self-esteem prevented them from doing so. Instead, they received a second call to repentance through seeing the conversion of obviously sinful people, but they did not want to do that themselves because they did not want to see their own sins. And so, in the end, what would move them to repentance? And if it is Godās will that they repent, because everyone is a sinner, then they did not fulfil Godās will.
I would like to point out that the parable does not imply that it is better to be a sinful person first in order to be saved. Yes, in the parable, sinful people repented. But this required the sermon of John the Baptist (a unique case in history, but more generally, it required a significant impetus to repentance). What if a person does not feel such a push? What if sin blocks their vision altogether? Then his condition is even worse than that of the one who agreed but did not go.
That is why the parable teaches repentance first and foremost,
teaches us to be open to conversion and repentance (not to look for any
special nudges), and also humility – a true vision of our condition and
readiness to correct it. In this way, the parable is similar to another
place in the Gospel, which was discussed here:
24072023.html
To the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon:
For the readings from the Apostle to the Great Martyrs,
see the link (there, in relation to Theodore Stratilat):
21062023.html
For the readings from the Gospel, see here:
06052023.html
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!