Man looks at his works, his family, and doesn’t take into consideration what God says. All those who refuse to respond to the call of God as today’s Gospel reading says (Lk 14:16-24), aren’t unaware of God. They are honorable people, but their souls are attached to the things of this world. We take solace in the fact that we are Christians, but inside our souls there is the old man with his rights, his settled ways, his kingdom: he will surrender absolutely nothing to God. And we allow him to stay there and we even nourish him.
This world exists so that whoever wants to be saved will be saved. And God ‘forces’ some people to go into His house. But how does this happen, God forcing someone? By allowing something to happen to you, and you get upset, you get shaken up. You understand that God is calling you in this way. The result is that you’re ‘forced’ to enter the house of God, onto the road of repentance, that you should humble yourself. And you’ll be saved.
Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos (†)
From the book: Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos, “SPIRITUAL MESSAGES” Panorama Thessaloniki, 2017
