Today on Cvijeta, in the church of St. Luke in Kotor's Old Town, the archpriest - Stavrophor Gojko Perović addressed the faithful.
"Dear brothers and sisters, we have heard the word of God. We saw it a little earlier when the priest was carrying the Gospel held high. We watched the word of God come into the world, which is the beginning of every liturgy, and now we listen to what God has to say. First we heard the Apostle, then we heard the verses of the Psalms, and now we heard the festive Beginning, which talks about Christ's suffering. And then, if you remember, as they say in school when someone listens really well, they "swallow every word". And that is what is required of Christians, to be so attentive at the Holy Liturgy, because at the end of the liturgy, they are expected to, after having seen and heard, swallow the word of God. Let's receive a morsel of the Kingdom of Heaven, because a morsel is the word of God, as the self-possessed David says, sweeter than honey," says Fr. Gojko.
In several places in the Old Testament, he continues, it is said that man is weak and that he should swallow the word of God.
"The prophet who swallowed the scroll of God, said "what I swallowed is sweeter than honey". In another place, the psalmist says that the word of God is sweeter than honey, while the Lord will tell his apostles, before his suffering, and immediately after what we have just heard, that no one will have life, nor will he enter the Kingdom of Heaven, who does not receive him , and He is the word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the word of God, who became a man," said Fr. Gojko.
He points out that whoever does not receive Him and does not eat His body and does not take His blood into himself, also talks about the fact that there is no religion or philosophy in this world that preaches a greater closeness between people and man than what we are listening to now.
"That a man can take into himself, not symbolically, not poetically, not imaginary, but really in the form of a bite, in the form of food, through bread and through wine, God himself. That's how God wanted it. That's how it pleased the Lord, to unite people with Him through the form of dinner, through the form of the table, through the form of "come on, everyone, sit down".
Who sits at the Lord's table? Only the one who loves the Lord, who believes in Him and who loves his brother. At that table, where a morsel of eternal life sweeter than honey is given, no one sits down who hates his brother. And no one sits down who is not clear whether Christ really rose from the dead," says Fr. Gojko.
That is why, he reminds, it remained in the Holy Liturgy until today, that those who have not yet been baptized should come out.
"And only the one who does not believe that Christ rose from the dead is not baptized." Admittedly, there are people who believe, but have not yet been baptized, who are preparing," continues Fr. Gojko, recalling that those older people, who are not baptized, prepare and are baptized on Holy Saturday and come to Easter as baptized Christians.
What we heard today, he continues, is that the Lord is entering Jerusalem welcomed as a king, as a messiah, but in the next few days a lot of things will happen where you can see all the "exhibition" of human weaknesses.
"Neither the one who governs Judea, who has an army, who has money, can save him from death, nor the one who draws people to the word of God and those who teach people how to know God, do not know God in front of them, but have crucified Him. Even those who are called apostles and who say "we will die for You", do not stay to defend Him, nor can they defend Him. And the one who confessed Him on the cross and said "remember me Lord in your kingdom", he also dies with Him. Neither the one who carried the cross for Him, nor the one who took Him down from the cross, no one can prevent the crime. Just one general weakness. And the Lord doesn't give us this so that we can fall into depression and say "look, no one can do anything from people", but so that we can see a little better that God can do everything. Then those who were so timid, one betrayed Him, one denied Him, one won't talk about Him until they feel Him, they ask to sit next to Him, so they get angry with them and so on. All of these people suddenly become very powerful, but not because of their strength and some of their preparation, but because they met the resurrected Christ, saw, felt and said "there is nothing more to think about and talk about, but the risen Christ. God grant that we too, standing like this and watching, swallowing every word of God both figuratively and concretely at the Holy Communion, may await the glorious, most glorious resurrection of Christ, which alone gives us the power to be human and to await the eternal life of the Lord God, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen," said Fr. Gojko.

Today's Gospel:
Jn. 41 (12:1-18)

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had died, whom he raised from the dead. 2. There they prepared dinner for him, and Martha served, and Lazar was one of those who sat with him at the table. 3. And Mary, taking a liter of real spikenard with a precious fragrance, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house is filled with the smell of peace. 4. Then said one of his disciples, Judas Simon of Iscariot, who intended to betray him: 5. Why is this myrrh not sold for three hundred dinars and given to the poor? 6. And he didn't say this because he cared about the poor, but he was a thief, and he had a bag, and he took what he put in it. 7. And Jesus said: Leave her alone! She saved it for the day of my funeral; 8. Because you always have the poor with you, but you don't always have me. 9. Many people from Judea found out that he was there and came not only for Jesus, but also to see Lazarus whom he raised from the dead. 10. And the high priests agreed to kill Lazarus as well; 11. Because many of the Jews came because of him and believed in Jesus. 12. The next day, many of the people who had come for the Feast, hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13. took palm branches and went out to meet him and shouted: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel! 14. And Jesus, finding a donkey, sat on it, as it is written: 15. Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming sitting on a donkey. 16. But his disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then he remembered that this was written for him, and that they did this to him. 17. And the people who were with him witnessed when he called Lazarus from the grave and raised him from the dead. 18. That is why the people came out to meet him, because they heard that he had done this sign.

Photo - Andrea Ševaljević