Metropolitan Vikenty: “We Were Created for Eternity, and to Eternity We Must Strive”

On 1 December 2019, the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral in Tashkent. The All-Night Vigil was served there the evening before.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were Hieromonk Spiridon (Pozdeev), Protodeacon Alexander Nesin and Deacon Pyotr Gnatik.

After the Liturgy Metropolitan Vikenty addressed the praying flock with his archpastoral word, explaining the meaning of the Gospel passage read at the service.

“Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, “What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?” So he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God’” (Luke 12:16–21).

“This account, this teaching which the Lord gives us through this parable, through this example, tells us that we need to keep material and spiritual goods at least on the same level, the archpastor said in his sermon. When we think only of the material and not at all of the spiritual, as we see in the person of this rich man, the Lord will call us fools, because man is created for eternity, for eternal life, for the Kingdom of God. And our whole life here on earth must flow into eternal life. We were created for eternity, and to eternity we must strive. When we stop at the temporal, the earthly, the material, we are of course gravely mistaken, we go astray, and we need the kind of correction the Lord speaks of today when He calls such people ‘fools’. It is a very serious word, even an offensive one. But this is how the Lord speaks to those who think only of earthly things, of how to fill their stomachs and how to enrich themselves more, and care about nothing else.

Earthly cares never end. They go on and on. And the more a person has materially, the more he wants. This is already a passion. And then he forgets everything: God, the Kingdom of God, his salvation, his eternal abode.

And so, especially now, in the days of the Nativity Fast, when the Church calls us to reflect on our souls and our spiritual enrichment, we must of course take this parable and these divine instructions very close to heart. It is not a matter of wealth. Wealth is not the reason a person may fail to receive the Kingdom of God; what matters is one’s attitude to wealth. If we care for our spiritual growth in God, for the Kingdom of God, and at the same time receive some material goods, nothing prevents us from growing spiritually and becoming rich toward God.”