On July 17, on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, feast of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers of Russia, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. After the readings from the Sacred Scripture he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s Gospel concerns the casting out of demons from two possessed men. It further tells us that the demons entered into a herd of swine and then it tells us of the suicide of those swine. We can learn some things from this Gospel reading. We should note that the people in the country of the Gergesenes who owned the swine were disobeying the Jewish law. The law of Moses forbade to eat pork, thus it did not encourage to raise the pigs. Pigs were considered unclean animals. However, we read in the Gospel that those people in the country of Gergesines did raise them. The interpreters of the Scripture say that many of those people could be not Jewish but some of them were but disobeyed their religious precepts. In addition, we read that they begged Christ to leave their area, virtually chasing the Son of God away. That makes us think that the disobedience of these people explains why two of them became possessed. Thus, dear brothers and sisters, we learn that disobedience of God leads to misfortune”.
“Today we commemorate the Holy Royal Passion-bearers of Russia who were brutally and unjustly murdered on this day more than 100 years ago. The last Russian Tsar Nicholas was killed along with all his family, with his wife and minor children. Some our brethren holding monarchist views would see the connection between that sad event and the idea of the sorrowful results of disobedience of God. To a monarchistic person, submission to the monarch is a form of obedience to God because in such a view, a king, an emperor is a God-appointed person to rule the country, a person sacred and anointed to kingship. Therefore, disobedience to the Russian Emperor and, moreover, murdering him, could be viewed as the reason for all the misfortunes happened to the Russian nation and to all the nations living in the former Russian Empire after that”.
“But if we alienate ourselves from that monarchistic view, we may still see that, in fact, many troubles and sorrows occurred in the former Russian Empire following the death of the last Tsar. Those misfortunes took place because the inhabitants of that land turned away from God. Murdering of the royal family was only one of the facts showing that apostasy. Many other things followed that turning away from God and Orthodox faith. Many sorrows fell upon the people populating the former Empire after forgetting the precepts of Christian religion and morals. There were famines, wars (one of which was fratricidal), abuses, persecutions of the different social classes, economical problems. The people became possessed by godless attitude and resembled that herd of swine driven to the steep place and throwing to the abyss”.
“Only during the last three decades the godless power ceased to exist and there was a hope of spiritual revival. Some people there began to return to their Christian roots, to the true faith. Many churches were reopened and built. But, unfortunately, it did not truly become a massive process of conversion, of repentance. In many instances, it was rather superficial and even hypocritical thing. And so, the recent new sorrowful events, the new war started by Russian authorities demonstrated that the people are still very much away from God and from His law”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! The lesson of today’s Gospel is not only about Russia. It is also important for every nation. If a nation lives in true Christian faith, cherishes right values and obeys the God’s law, then it enjoys a relatively good and prosperous life. It becomes blessed by God. But if a nation lives in the darkness, it suffers from many misfortunes. Such a darkness can be either paganism or atheism or any false religion. Nations living with the false beliefs, with the wrong values become corrupted by sins and iniquities; they experience social tension, wars, economic problems, abuses and crimes. Unfortunately, this now happens to the American nation. God is driven away from our social and political life. Prayer and Christian spirituality is chased out of our schools. False moral values became accepted by our society and the law of God abandoned. American nation now resembles those swineherd of today’s Gospel who felt sorry for the swine perished in the lake and begged the Son of God to leave their city. Isn’t that a shame?!”
“Therefore, let us learn from today’s Gospel to be faithful to God, to obey His law and to cherish the true moral values given to us by the Lord. Let us spiritually belong to that Christian family held by the Holy Orthodox Church. In this family we will be blessed by God, protected by the Most Holy Theotokos, by the intercession of the Saints, including today’s Saints, the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia. And further we may become saved and inherit eternal life promised to those who know the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.

The choir nicely performed hymns dedicated to the Holy Royal Martyrs during preparation for Holy Communion.