Fifth Sunday of Great Lent: Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt
Gospel of the day: Mark 10:32-45
~+~
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Approaching the great feast of the Resurrection, and before it the Passion Week, thus in due time the Lord Jesus Christ, wishing to reveal to the Apostles, His closest disciples the events that will come and prepare them, He begins gradually and more openly to talk to them about it.
As they climb towards Jerusalem, He reveals to His disciples that the moment is approaching when the people will renounce Him and condemn Him to death, and they will crucify Him. However, despite this tragedy, the Lord gives them hope, that despite this, He will resurrect Himself and fulfil what He had come for.
He came to resurrect Himself, and raise the fallen human race. To restore humans to the previous dignity that Adam had before he sinned – and for which God created us. That dignity is eternal life and eternal joy in the Kingdom of Heaven.
However, few know this secret, even His Apostles, the most faithful disciples, missed this. Thus when they understood and heard that Christ would leave them and by doing so, their idea and hope for a career in life here on earth would be destroyed, the brothers James and John, being instructed by their mother, wished and asked to have an unreasonable desire fulfilled – they wanted to sit on the right and on the left side of Christ. In response to their request, He gives them a completely different picture of what His Kingdom will look like, contrary to this earthly kingdom.
Here the strong ones’ rule, the powerful rule, we would say even the dishonest and evil people rule. However, in the Kingdom of Heaven it will be the opposite. In the Kingdom of Heaven, those who have suffered the most, who have made the greatest effort, who have shown the most love for Christ, and thus for their neighbours, even for their enemies, will be among the first. And that is why the Lord teaches them to prepare themselves here on earth to live in this way of life. For the greatest obstacle to entering the Kingdom of Heaven is pride, vanity and a high opinion of ourselves.
We spend our whole lives in our striving and positioning ourselves in this world. But when the moment comes to leave this world and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, those who have not learned to humble themselves, who have not learned to love, even to love their enemies, unfortunately there will be no place for them there. Therefore, there we will see many people whom we may not have loved in our life, whom perhaps in some way annoyed us, over whom we have been arrogant, we have behaved unnaturally, that is, with pride, with vanity we have hurt them, and there, in the Kingdom of Heaven it will be the other way around.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us learn from this Gospel, not to push each other and fight for positions here on earth. If God gives them to us – we can accept them, however, as He Himself says, not others to serve us, but us to serve others. With the position we may hold we have to help people and thus become likeness of God, thus to show similarity to the Lord. So that when the moment comes for us to depart from this world, we may recognize ourselves there and in that way a place on the left or right side of Christ is guaranteed for us. In no other way can we attain the Kingdom of Heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father. Amen.
Father Gavril Galev
Abbot of the monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
30 / 03 / 2026
