On April 28, 2024, the feast of the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon.
"Unfortunately, not everything that the Lord taught and that the Holy Church continues to teach, repeating His words, is accepted by modern people," Patriarch Kirill noted. Just as at that time not all the inhabitants of Jerusalem accepted the Lord: some did, and some did not; some followed Christ to the cross, and some shouted "crucify". The Lord leaves to man the freedom of choice, and if we follow Him, we reach the highest goal of life. First of all, we gain spiritual and intellectual meaning of life, because if there is no eternal life, then earthly life is meaningless. Sometimes we ask unbelievers: "Here, you will die, - and what is the meaning of your life?" They usually say, "In children, in the future." That is a strange answer. And who knows what will happen to the children, what they will be like? Who knows what the future will be like? But you have lived without doing anything for that future, if you have lived without God! Everything you did had meaning and significance for today, or for the coming days and years of human history; but with the end of physical life, with the coming of death, all the meaning of our existence is gone. is lost here - if we reject God and if we reject eternity."
"This is why it is impossible to expel faith from the hearts and minds of men. Roman pagan emperors fought against the Christian faith, and then many other politicians, including in our recent past, when a terrible goal was set in our country - to build a paradise without God, a society of justice, wealth, prosperity without God, and thus without the spiritual component, which is the only thing that can move a person to a true feat.
That is why today's holiday, my dear ones, brings us into the memories of the Savior's sufferings and at the same time helps us to understand a lot of things. It helps us to understand what is the meaning of our life, what is our purpose, why we live, why we should educate our children in faith, why we should love each other, our Motherland, our people," the Patriarch emphasized.
"Unfortunately, not everything that the Lord taught and that the Holy Church continues to teach, repeating His words, is accepted by modern people," Patriarch Kirill noted. Just as at that time not all the inhabitants of Jerusalem accepted the Lord: some did, and some did not; some followed Christ to the cross, and some shouted "crucify". The Lord leaves to man the freedom of choice, and if we follow Him, we reach the highest goal of life. First of all, we gain spiritual and intellectual meaning of life, because if there is no eternal life, then earthly life is meaningless. Sometimes we ask unbelievers: "Here, you will die, - and what is the meaning of your life?" They usually say, "In children, in the future." That is a strange answer. And who knows what will happen to the children, what they will be like? Who knows what the future will be like? But you have lived without doing anything for that future, if you have lived without God! Everything you did had meaning and significance for today, or for the coming days and years of human history; but with the end of physical life, with the coming of death, all the meaning of our existence is gone. is lost here - if we reject God and if we reject eternity."
"This is why it is impossible to expel faith from the hearts and minds of men. Roman pagan emperors fought against the Christian faith, and then many other politicians, including in our recent past, when a terrible goal was set in our country - to build a paradise without God, a society of justice, wealth, prosperity without God, and thus without the spiritual component, which is the only thing that can move a person to a true feat.
That is why today's holiday, my dear ones, brings us into the memories of the Savior's sufferings and at the same time helps us to understand a lot of things. It helps us to understand what is the meaning of our life, what is our purpose, why we live, why we should educate our children in faith, why we should love each other, our Motherland, our people," the Patriarch emphasized.
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