Homily on the 3rd Sunday After Penetecost
Romans 5: 1-10; Matthew 6: 22-33.
To worry seems a normal thing; even a natural process designed to protect us from any potential danger. But what are its real cost? Does it add anything to our lives other than fear and a vision of life as a dangerous thing? How many people are trapped in mindset like this always waiting for the next disaster? Is this a way to live?
Our Lord and Saviour tells us clearly that we are to place out trust in the All-Holy Trinity. This can be difficult at times as each one of us has various obligations we need to fulfil towards our families, friends and community Church and local. Yet we are called by our Lord and Saviour to be people of hope for He will provide for us even in our darkest hour.
Psalm 23 verse 4 makes this clear for it says
“Even if I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
This is how the All-Holy Trinity acts towards His beloved people – He draws near to them for He loves them. He truly cares and knows each of us even before we were born See Psalm 139: 1-16! This is why He sent His only begotten Son into the world so that the world may truly have life within it (John 3:16).
These might be nice words you might say but what does this really mean?
On a practical level it means we must realise that we are more valuable than even the most precious Gem in the eyes of Our Lord. This is why Christ points out that we are more valuable than even the birds of the air in the eyes of our God (Matthew 6: 26). This then has the implication that God loves us and if we trust Him and let Him, He will look after us and provide for us for that is what a loving parent does.
This is why the two Commandments which sum up the law are centred around love – love of God and Neighbour (Matthew 22: 36-40). A man without love is empty and becomes angry, hateful and twisted like the evil one who envied God so much that he rebelled and now has become so twisted that even he cannot come back to God because his whole reason for being is to bring down others – misery loves company as the old saying goes!
Saint Maximus the Confessor tells us that we must practice this virtue of love even to those who would will us harm for he says:
“I say to you’, the Lord says, ‘love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you.’ Why did He command these things of you? He commanded them so that He might free you from hatred, sadness, anger, and grudges, and that He could give you the greatest possession of all, perfect love which is impossible to be possess except by ones who love all equally in the imitation of God.”
Saint Maximus the Confessor.
As difficult as these words may seem we must do our best to have this attitude of love towards all people. Another way of thinking about this is who is the most physically, spiritually and mentally healthy – the person who hates everyone and spends every living moment dwelling on these hateful thoughts or the person who wishes everyone well and gets on with life praying and doing good even for those who hate them?
Clearly it is the second person for as Saint Maximus makes it clear by loving our enemies, we free ourselves from negative emotions which hold us back spiritually and stunt our spiritual growth in the Lord. This is the reason we can say that Christianity truly is countercultural.
People who do not believe in God will look at the message of the Holy Gospel and scoff for to them why would you love someone who hates you – this to them, is madness. These are the people who say it’s a ‘dog-eat-dog world’, meaning to succeed in life you have to trample over those in your way.
This is not the Christian way for we are called to love and to be vessels who shine this love throughout the world so that others may come to Christ!
As Saint Gregory of Palamas puts it:
"If you put something fragrant on to burning coals, you motivate those who approach to come back again and to stay near, but if instead you put on something with an unpleasant, oppressive smell, you repel them and drive them away.
It is the same with the mind. If your attention is occupied with what is holy, you make yourself worthy of being visited by God, since this is the sweet savour which God catches scent of.
On the other hand, if you nurture evil, foul and earthly thoughts within you, you remove yourself from God’s supervision and unfortunately make yourself worthy of His aversion.
We know that prayer in and of itself cannot save us, but carrying it out before God can. For when the Lord’s eyes are upon us, He sanctifies us, as the sun warms everything upon which it shines."
St. Gregory Palamas.
This is another way of saying people will not listen to the message of love in the Gospel if those spreading the message to the world are of the world and value what the world considers to be important. In other worlds if we present the truths of the Gospel in such a manner that makes them seem unpleasant no one will listen. Who in their right mind would sign up for a life of fear and guilt?
Look at the life of Christ, He was the perfect example of love, He welcomed those who the world of His day, rejected and showed the ultimate act of love by being nailed to the wood of the Holy Cross!
Christ did not preach hate or that an eye was to be repaid with an eye as was in the Old Law (Exodus 21: 23-27)– rather He said if one is attacked one must turn the other cheek showing that one is a child of God (Matthew 5: 39).
Any supposed doctrine that preaches that one must kill or repay violence with violence is not of God and in itself is of the evil one. Christ came that we might have life and really live it to the full for life is more than what can be experienced in the world now as it goes on after death.
This means that to be truly alive we need to be nurtured by the Holy Mysteries of Christs Orthodox Church (John 6: 54; John 10:10). For without the Holy Mysteries of Christ’s Church we really cannot be truly spiritually alive.
This is why it is vital that one receives the Holy Mysteries of the Christs Church regularly for they nurture you spiritually connecting you to the All-Holy Trinity so that you might truly live in Him and not in the ways of the world.
This is not to say that we are to cut ourselves from the world as have some extreme sects of Protestantism. Rather, we are to bring Christ to the world as His hands and feet being icons of Him to all of those around us.
Christ’s light must shine through us we must not hide it under the veil of self-interest and selflove (Matthew 5:15-16). Think of how a parent loves they do not love their child out of love for themselves; they love their child because their child is precious to them and they would do anything for their child because of this love.
This is the way God loves us; this is the way he expects us to love others – this in a way shows us that each human life if precious and worthy of this love. This is why we are commanded by the All-Holy Trinity that we are not to kill other human beings because they are precious and by virtue of this value worthy of love and respect.
The Desert fathers make it clear in this way:
“An old man asked – how can I find God? In fasting, in watching, in labours, in devotion, and, above all in discernment. I tell you many people have hurt their bodies without discernment and have gone away not having achieved anything of value. Our mouths smell bad when fasting, we know the Holy Scriptures by heart, we recite the Psalms of Saint David, but we have not that which God seeks: Charity and Humility.”
Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
This means if we do not have love which charity is a natural byproduct then what value are all these acts of devotion?
If this is the case, we might as well act like the Pharisee praying in the temple dressed in the best clothes and praying in the sight of others so that the others might know how supposedly holy, we are. The actions of the Pharisee, in this case, do not equate to any spiritual good for he is not praying out of love for God but rather he is praying so that others might honour him – in many ways a sort of twisted self-love (Luke 18: 9-14).
It is like the watching an episode of the late-night preachers on tv - they do not really mean what they are saying they simply cherry pick bits from the Holy Scriptures so that they can get poor little ones to give money in the hope that God will grant them some grace. The only care these people have is their bank balance.
Christ is clear that we must not be like the rich man who stored up treasure in this life to not be able to take it with him (Matthew 6:19). This is not to say that having money in itself is a bad thing but what you do with that money can either lead you to a godly life or away from the All-Holy-Trinity. This is why it is important to do what you can with your money and resources to help others for this will bring you many graces from the All-Holy Trinity.
This is to say while it is good to make sure that you are financially secure try and help others in whatever capacity you can whether this is through your time or money donated to good causes.
Therefore, this week focus on how you can be of service to those around you. Talk to the lonely little old lady down the road who has nothing better to do than look out the window to make her life a little more interesting. Help out at you your local community centre giving your time to help the less fortunate. In other words – do what you can to help others for each act of charity will help you truly show the light of Christ to others.
Let us pray this week that we might be able to see when and how we may be of service to others so that we might make Christ’s light shine to them so that they may come to Him who is the source of all love, life, and hope.
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