Dear Brothers and Sisters

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and all the Russian saints, from the first bishops who suffered during the first centuries of Christianity on the Crimean Peninsula to the New-Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th century!

Last week, on the day that all the saints are commemorated, I noted that we are separated from the saints by our sins, but that fortunately we have a way of cleansing ourselves through confession. Today, let’s continue this topic. Before we dive into the mystery of repentance, it would be good to define what sin is and that process which leads a person into sin. Today, let’s talk about what sin is and next week about the process.

More often than not, we think of sin as a bad action or the violation of a commandment or a church law, but this is not an exactly accurate opinion. Literally, a person sins when he misses the mark or misses his goal. Today’s Gospel reading wonderfully illustrates the goal of our life. Our Lord Jesus Christ, while passing along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, saw four fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew, as well as the sons of Zebedee, James and John, whom He called to follow Him. Immediately, they left everything – their father, their work, their meager belongings and followed Christ, becoming His disciples. The goal of our life is to become disciples of Jesus Christ, to rid ourselves of everything superfluous and follow after Him.

When we miss the mark, we sin. There was nothing wrong in the apostles being fishermen, or in the fact that they worked with their father or owned boats, nets and rods. It would have been bad had they heard the call of Christ to follow Him and instead of going would have clung more closely to all these things. They would have missed their spiritual goal; in other words, they would have sinned. The same is true with us. If our family, work, our personal comfort, etc. separate or distract us from God, we sin.

Considering all of this, next time that we are preparing for confession, let’s try to first of all think about whether we are hitting our spiritual mark or goal. Are we following Christ? Do we love God with all our hearts and our neighbours as ourselves? Having posed such questions, probably every person would answer that they have not hit the mark, that they are not true followers of Christ, and that they could serve God and their neighbours better. Afterwards, we can think about what in particular separates us from Christ. Different people will have differing answers, and identical actions in different situations could be sinful or not, depending on whether they separate us from God or not.

May today’s saints help us become true disciples of Christ, leaving behind our boats, nets and rods, like the apostles Andrew, Peter, James, and John did many years ago.

priest Alexis