Patriarch Porfirije: Temptations Open the Spiritual Eye
Church of Serbia – 8/6/21
Patriarch Porfirije: There are many who have physical sight, but are actually blind to life, to beauty, to love
On the Sixth Sunday after Pascha, on Sunday of the Blind Man, June 6, 2021, His Holiness Porfirije, Serbian Patriarch, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Transfiguration in Zagreb. The clergy of the Cathedral church concelebrated to the Patriarch, while the choir conducted by Ivana Srbljan sang responses.
The Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church and administrator of the Diocese of Zagreb-Ljubljana addressed the gathered people with a sermon after reading the Holy Gospel, in which he singled out the question that the apostles asked the Lord: Who sinned, this man or his parents, that caused him to be born blind? Referring to the answer, His Holiness said that every weakness, every disease, every trouble and misfortune is essentially a consequence of sin – the misuse of those gifts and those powers that we have received from God.
On the other hand, the Patriarch emphasized that temptations are not always caused by the person or sin of someone’s ancestors. We find an example of this in the Gospel read, in which the Lord says that man was blind from birth in order for the power of God to manifest through him, that is, that the one who is blind, and who went through various difficulties and troubles, would gradually open his inner spiritual sight.
– No matter how much we are talking about appearance here, this story shows how the spiritual eyes of this man were opened, but there are many who have bodily sight, and in fact are blind to life, to beauty, to love, who are blind to the communion of love with God. For every temptation we have, how important it is to ask ourselves where it comes from, it is even more important to know that it is not without God’s providence and that temptation is a task that God has set for us to solve it so that by solving it we can be closer to Him. met, said Patriarch Porfirije.
