Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the great feast of the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem, with the end of Great Lent, as well as with the beginning of Holy Week!

Last night at the аll-night Vigil, an excerpt from the Gospel according to Matthew was read, in which we heard how the chief priests and scribes complained that the children were greeting our Lord Jesus Christ with His entrance into the city and Temple with the words: “Hosanna to the son of David!” In answer to this grumbling, Christ reminded the priests that the Prophet David himself, in the eighth psalm, wrote the following prophetic words: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.”

The Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom underlines that these children and breastfeeding infants, who could not yet speak, were not consciously saying these things from themselves, but that the Lord God Himself placed these utterances of praise on their lips. In such a miraculous manner, the most simple children, too young to be educated in anything, became the most glorious theologians, while the priests and scribes, having studied for many years, became evil God-haters. Chrysostom continues that it is not by chance that the Lord arranged everything thus, but so as to encourage the holy apostles, the simple, uneducated, Galilean fishermen, not long before the start of their ministry.

Today the following questions could perhaps arise in our minds: what should we do so that our Lord and God would enter into our hearts, like once He entered into Jerusalem? How can we become true theologians, that is, come to know God and bring Him true praise, like the children did many years ago in Jerusalem? How can we become ministers of Christ’s radiant resurrection in our world darkened by sin, when we have no education, no upbringing in our holy faith? Our Saviour Himself gives us a simple answer when He says: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18: 3). The Holy Hierarch Gregory Palamas in his sermon on today’s feast, expounds on this thought with the following words: “Let us too, brothers, be babes in evil,” and in another place emphasizes: “Do not be children in understanding; however in malice be babes.” A child is good not in that he knows little or nothing, but in that he is free from sinful habits, that often he is not even aware that this or that sin even exists, that he is open to accepting information, that is, he is ready to hear the Word of God and believe what he hears, that he trusts and loves his parents, even when they have not earned that trust.

Today, when we remember how the children of Jerusalem glorified the Lord in the Тemple, let’s try to be like children in regard to evil. Let’s put aside our passions at least for a week, tune out the news, and avoid idle socializing and useless time on the internet. Instead of this, let’s open the book of Holy Scripture, let’s open our hearts to understanding and accepting that which we read or hear in church, let’s try to love our Heavenly Father with the true love of children. In such a way, we will make our souls pleasant temples for the Holy Spirit, and in His turn, the Spirit of God which will enter into us will perhaps make out of us true theologians and preachers of the Christian faith.

priest Alexis