St. Theophan the Recluse: Seeking the Lost Sheep

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Wednesday, November 30(17), 2022
1Tim. 1:18-20, 2:8-15; Lk. 15:1-10

The Parables of the Lost sheep and the Lost piece of silver [Lk. 15:4-10] make us marvel: how great is God’s condescension to us sinners!  He leaves all the righteous ones and goes after the wrongdoers to correct them; He seeks them, and having found them, He is filled with joy Himself and calls the entire heavens to rejoice together with Him.

How, then, does He seek us, and why?  Does not He know where we are, even though we have turned away from Him?  Of course He knows and sees everything.  However, had it been only about taking a sinner and bringing him home, like a lost sheep, the sinner would have run back to where he was at no time.  No, the sinner must first be moved to repentance, so that his conversion and return to the Lord were caused by his own free will, ─ and that cannot be done by any kind of a mandate, order or external action.

When the Lord is seeking a sinner, it means just one thing: moving him to repentance.   The Lord arranges everything around him in such a way as to show him the abyss where he is about to fall, make him change his mind and turn back.  This is the hidden reason behind all circumstances in life, behind all joys and sorrows we encounter, even behind occasional words we overhear and instant glances we catch.  Likewise, the inner voice of God through conscience, through our sense of good and right which is still intact in our heart, never stops. 

How much is being done for the conversion of sinners ─ but they still remain as they are!... Darkness cast by the enemy make them ignore these signals and rest assured that they are “all set”; in big trouble they would say: “OK, I will quit tomorrow”, ─ and do nothing.  Days go by; indifference to salvation, to one’s own soul, gets ever stronger.  A little more ─ and sin will harden completely in the heart.  Who knows, will the conversion be possible then?

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