Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine shared a spiritual reflection on social media, drawing on the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son as the Church continues its preparation for Great Lent.
He noted that through the reading of this parable, the Church leads the faithful into a time of deeper spiritual vigilance, repentance, and inner renewal. Although the parable is well known, he emphasized that each time it is heard, it offers new insights for personal understanding. For this reason, the Church returns to it every year as one of Scripture’s most powerful calls to sincere repentance.
According to Metropolitan Epifaniy, the image of the younger son represents every person who receives God’s gifts and squanders them in sinful living. At the same time, it symbolizes the pagan nations of old that turned away from the true God. The parable also exposes the deadly harm of sins such as wastefulness, selfishness, contempt for parents, and immorality. The younger son’s demand for his inheritance while his father was still alive, he explained, was an act of deep disrespect—tantamount to treating his father as if he were already dead. This, he said, reflects humanity’s own sin against God, our Heavenly Father, whose gifts are often misused in the pursuit of sinful passions.
The Metropolitan stressed that Christ warns of the grave consequences of turning away from God, yet at the same time offers hope: return to the Father’s house is always possible through repentance and a genuine change of life. God, like the father in the parable, goes out to meet the one who returns with a contrite heart.
He also referred to the teaching of the Holy Fathers about the devil’s twofold deception: first, minimizing sin to lure a person into it, and then, after the fall, planting despair by convincing the sinner that repentance is useless. The parable, he said, exposes both lies. Every sin leads to spiritual bondage and mortal danger, yet no sin places a person beyond God’s mercy if there is sincere repentance and a real effort to change.
Metropolitan Epifaniy further reflected on the figure of the elder son, who was angered by the father’s mercy. Historically, this mirrors those who knew God’s law but failed to accept Christ and the repentance of the Gentiles. Spiritually, it is a warning to practicing Christians not to fall into pride or judgment of others. Even faithfulness to Church life can become a temptation to self-righteousness if it leads to contempt for those who struggle with sin.
Finally, he reminded the faithful that sins often considered “minor” by human standards—such as wastefulness, selfishness, disrespect for parents, and immorality—are spiritually deadly, even if not condemned by civil law. Every sin, he said, distances a person from God and draws them toward spiritual death.
Concluding his reflection, Metropolitan Epifaniy encouraged the faithful, especially during Great Lent, not to remain captive to sin when they fall, but to repent, to correct their lives through concrete action, and to return to the loving embrace of the Heavenly Father, to whom belongs glory forever.
