Speaker 1: Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Anunciation
Speaker 1: Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an
Speaker 1: old calendar Orthodox Church sharing the faith of the Apostles
Speaker 1: and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,
Speaker 1: let's listen to this week's homily.
Speaker 2: When's the our talk? A holed the readings this morning?
Speaker 3: I had intended to preach about the state backing unit
Speaker 3: the council, but and here's female the archbishop covered it completely,
Speaker 3: so there's no reason for me agree about it.
Speaker 2: Although if you haven't read the email, please you read it.
Speaker 2: Very goodness, is Zara informative.
Speaker 4: I will see greely about the parable several.
Speaker 2: Us. Our Lord already explains what it means, and I
Speaker 2: certainly can't.
Speaker 4: Explain it any better than our Lord has, but I'll
Speaker 4: I'll give a shot. The Lord in of course, and.
Speaker 2: Soar as he talks about in in the Gospel, and
Speaker 2: he continues his ministry through the successors of.
Speaker 4: The apostles and the bishops, and the bishops who pass
Speaker 4: on the ministry to us the priests.
Speaker 2: Now, of course it's up with all Christians in their
Speaker 2: own way to spread and the sea. But mostly it's
Speaker 2: you know, you bring your friends and family to church, and.
Speaker 4: Then we try to die them as best as we can.
Speaker 4: But when when Lord talks about the sea here in
Speaker 4: the in the terrible.
Speaker 2: The sea by the west side, are they here in.
Speaker 4: The devil times and takes the word out of our hearts,
Speaker 4: sciatic believe and be safe? Well, that's that's terribly obvious
Speaker 4: that you know, the devil does not want to be
Speaker 4: of us to achieve salvation, to.
Speaker 2: Be saved by our prosn gorge, and so he does
Speaker 2: whatever he can to take the word of God out
Speaker 2: of our hearts. And then.
Speaker 4: After the the Lord says that the on the rock,
Speaker 4: they they can receive more of joy, but they have
Speaker 4: no roots. In other words, they receive the Gospel on
Speaker 4: a surface level. It doesn't penetrate into their hearts. And
Speaker 4: so when temptation comes, and it will He's come, they're
Speaker 4: quick to pass aside.
Speaker 2: They're crossed and go about and see worldly with the
Speaker 2: pleasures which he he speaks about later. The key.
Speaker 4: Is that even if we don't want to, we must
Speaker 4: take up our cross every single day and follow after
Speaker 4: the Lord.
Speaker 2: It's not easy. This may sound like when you first
Speaker 2: hear the parable. It may sound like a one kind
Speaker 2: of thing, but no, this is actually a terrible of
Speaker 2: the spiritual life. That is a daily occurrence.
Speaker 4: It's not that the sower is sowing the seed once
Speaker 4: and then it's okay, one and done. No, it is
Speaker 4: rather a daily or thing that the seed, the word
Speaker 4: of God is invited to come into our hearts, but
Speaker 4: we have to respond to it daily. And the way
Speaker 4: that we do that is by preparing the soil.
Speaker 2: The soil, of course is our parts. And now how
Speaker 2: do we prepare the soil? Well, anything that are gardening,
Speaker 2: You know anything about gardening, you know that you have
Speaker 2: to kill the soil. You have to break it up
Speaker 2: and make it so that it is receptive to the
Speaker 2: seeds that plants. Now, how do you do that in
Speaker 2: Christian life?
Speaker 4: Well, you begin by a forced prayer and by being
Speaker 4: practicing the virtues be kind to your neighbor.
Speaker 2: But also most importantly it's coming to church.
Speaker 4: Maybe use the sacraments, especially the sacraments of confession.
Speaker 2: And nuperous is very important. This is how we till
Speaker 2: the soil of our hearts and how we prepare to
Speaker 2: receive the Word of God in an honest.
Speaker 4: And good heart, have con heard the word and keeping
Speaker 4: it and bringing forth fruit with patience.
Speaker 2: Again, I much stress to you this is not a
Speaker 2: one and done thing.
Speaker 1: This is the.
Speaker 4: Spiritual life and the daily struggle. In the Gospel Awful
Speaker 4: Rosl Jesus.
Speaker 2: Said, let anyone who would just come after me, let
Speaker 2: you deny himself, take a his cross and follow me.
Speaker 2: But there is I I believe it's Mars Sospool, or
Speaker 2: maybe not re Gospel, where he.
Speaker 4: Says, let anyone who wus tonacy, let him deny himself
Speaker 4: daily and take up his cross and follow me. So
Speaker 4: the spiritual life is a process of daily self.
Speaker 2: Denial and of daily taken after cross. It becomes easy
Speaker 2: and very tempting. As Lord says, here to fall on
Speaker 2: thorns when they have heard, go forward in our choke
Speaker 2: with the cares and riches and the pleasures of this life.
Speaker 4: We wants.
Speaker 2: Everyone wants to go to heaven. Let doone wants to die? Right? Hm? Hm,
Speaker 2: and it it.
Speaker 4: There's an inscription of one of the monasteries in an
Speaker 4: alcos that says, give you the.
Speaker 2: Die before you die, you will not die when you die.
Speaker 4: And this means, of course that if you die to
Speaker 4: yourself and you take up your cross fall of Christ.
Speaker 2: You went, you're into the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 4: When you have physical death, which it is something that
Speaker 4: we all eventually have to face, but some of us,
Speaker 4: all of.
Speaker 2: Us really, it's not just lay people. It's months if
Speaker 2: priests and all of us. We're tempted to say, well.
Speaker 4: We want the good things now, we want the good
Speaker 4: things of heaven hero on earth, because the earth provides
Speaker 4: good things and pleasures for us. So let's have that
Speaker 4: now and then later when we're older and we're hearing that,
Speaker 4: we can focus on dependence and uh, you know, the
Speaker 4: spiritual life. What you don't understand is when you're older,
Speaker 4: you won't have the strength of the opportunity to seek
Speaker 4: retendance from the spiritual life.
Speaker 2: An example, my grandmother do not turn seventy nine years old.
Speaker 2: She's been Orthodox for a number of years, and she's
Speaker 2: no to me. She said, father, which she didn't call
Speaker 2: me father, be for the safe, but this one was
Speaker 2: that she probably fothered. Uh, she said, Father. I wish
Speaker 2: that I had been kind of Orthodoxical so much sooner,
Speaker 2: because I learned there's so much to learn and there's
Speaker 2: so much that is asked of me and my body
Speaker 2: and my brain is one plombia.
Speaker 4: And it basically said, because I know in her heart
Speaker 4: she wants to follow.
Speaker 2: The serious class. She does her best. She doesn't she
Speaker 2: was better than me, frankly, and just to put up
Speaker 2: to me, that's another thing. But she she does her best.
Speaker 2: And sam Dust, he says in his class at work
Speaker 2: the confessions late have I loved be a Lord? Saying
Speaker 2: God's sort of aggoing.
Speaker 4: My grandma all my Grandma's been a been a Christian
Speaker 4: for a whole life, but only recently in the last
Speaker 4: few years.
Speaker 2: Nor by Christ.
Speaker 4: You know this, this appreciation for uh not struggling when
Speaker 4: we had the strength yea to do so.
Speaker 2: And so that's what I really wanted to encourage you
Speaker 2: this morning.
Speaker 4: To do, is to remember that this what our work
Speaker 4: says here is a continuous action.
Speaker 2: It's the spiritual life, and that we must daily tell
Speaker 2: the soil and let the seed that.
Speaker 4: The sower brings to us, the word of God, take
Speaker 4: root in our hearts with clear it's clear the forms.
Speaker 2: Till the soil, break up the rough patches, and let
Speaker 2: the seed to take.
Speaker 4: Group in our hearts daily so that we may enter
Speaker 4: into you know part time.
Speaker 1: By thanks for listening to Hill Country homilies. For more information,
Speaker 1: visit Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church at www dot Denunciation t
Speaker 1: X dot com, and please join us again next week