Why He Spoke in Parables

About Bishop St. Theophane the Recluse

About "old" and "new" calendar

July 14 (27)

Rom. 8:14-21; Mt. 9:9-13

If the fear of God and the voice of your conscience have awakened spiritual powers in your soul, you will develop a certain inner sense allowing you to recognize the true meaning of the words in the spiritual realm, even if they are disguised in the form of a parable. Once you have it, a parable would not hide the matter from you, but rather show it to you yet more clearly.

No one without such inner sense would be able to properly understand a spiritual parable. If, however, such a man heard the story in an open, non-parable form, even then he would only get its external meaning, still unable to grasp the heart of the matter: it would be contrary to his whole mindset, seemingly absurd, worth only scoffing at.

That is what the Lord has given as the reason for talking in parables. Those who have at least a few spiritual seeds in their souls will understand a parable well, while for those who don’t — words are useless anyway. “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand... For this people’s heart is waxed gross''’ [Mt. 13:13-15]. Yet the parables were the right means for teaching those who could comprehend the hidden truth: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance" [Mt. 13:12].

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