Sunday, September 27--1st Sunday of Luke

The Reading is from the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:1-10)

Brothers and Sisters, working together with him, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation." Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger: by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as imposters, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

And let us therefore, when we suffer anything for Christ's sake, not merely bear it nobly but also rejoice. If we fast, let us leap for joy as if enjoying luxury; if we be insulted, let us dance as if praised; if we spend, let us feel as if gaining; if we bestow on the poor, let us count ourselves to receive: for he who does not give in this way will not give readily. When then you have it in mind to scatter abroad, do not look only at this in almsgiving, but also in every kind of virtue, do not compute only the severity of the toils, but also the sweetness of the prizes; and before all the subjects of this wrestling, our Lord Jesus; and you will readily enter upon the contest, and will live the whole time in pleasure. For nothing is accustomed to cause such pleasure as a good conscience.

Therefore Paul indeed, though wounded every day, rejoiced and exulted; but the men of this day, although they do not endure even a shadow of what he did, grieve and make lamentations from no other reason than that they do not have a mind full of heavenly philosophy. For, tell me, why the lamentation? Because you are poor, and in want of necessities? Surely you ought rather to make lamentation for this reason, not because you are weeping, not because you are poor, but because you are mean-spirited; not because you do not have money, but because you prize money so highly. Paul died daily, yet did not weep but even rejoiced; he fought with continual hunger, yet he did not grieve but even gloried in it. And do you, because you do not have the entire year's provisions stored up, grieve and beat yourself? 'Yes,' he replies, 'for Paul had to care only for his own needs, while I have to care for servants, and children, and wife as well.' Rather, he alone did not have to care for his own needs, but he cared for the whole world's. And you indeed have to care for one household, but he had to care for those the great many poor at Jerusalem, for those in Macedonia, for those everywhere in poverty, for those who give to them no less than for those who receive. For his care for the world was of a twofold nature, both that they might not be destitute of necessities, and that they might be rich in spiritual things. And your famishing children do not distress you so much as all the concerns of the faithful did him. Why do I say, of the faithful? For neither was he free from care for the unfaithful, but was so eaten up with it that he wished even to become accursed for their sakes; but you, were a famine to rage ten thousand times over, would never choose to die for anyone at all. And you indeed care for one woman, but he for the Churches throughout the world. For he says, My anxiety for all the Churches (2 Corinthians 11:28). How long then, O man, do you trifle, comparing yourself with Paul; and will not cease your great meanness of spirit from this? For we must weep, not when we are in poverty but when we sin; for this is as worthy of lamentations, as all the other things are of ridicule. 'But,' he says, 'this is not all that grieves me; but also because a certain person is in power, while I am unhonored and outcast.' And what is this? For the blessed Paul too appeared to the many to be unhonored and an outcast. 'But,' says he, 'he was Paul.' Plainly then not the nature of the things, but your feebleness of spirit causes your depression. Therefore do not lament your poverty, but lament yourself who have such an attitude, rather, do not lament yourself, but reform yourself; and do not seek for money, but pursue that which makes men of more cheerful countenance than an abundance of money, philosophy and virtue. For where indeed these exist, there is no harm in poverty; and where these do not exist, there is no good in money. For tell me, what good is it when men are rich indeed, but have beggarly souls? You do not bewail yourself, as much as that rich man bewails himself, because he does not posses the wealth of all. And if he does not weep as you do, yet lay open his conscience, and you will see his wailings and lamentations.

span style="color:#000000;">Do you want me to show you your own riches, that you may cease to count them happy who are rich in money? Do you see this heaven here, the sun, this bright and far shining star, which gladdens our eyes, is not this too set out common to all? And do not all enjoy it equally, both poor and rich? And the wreath of the stars and the orb of the moon, are they not left equally to all? Rather, if I must speak somewhat marvellously, we poor enjoy these more than they. For they indeed being for the most part steeped in drunkenness, and passing their time in revellings and deep sleep, do not even perceive these things, being always under cover and reared in the shade : but the poor more than any enjoy the luxury of these elements. And further, if you will look into the air which is everywhere diffused, you will see the poor man enjoying it in greater freshness and abundance. For wayfarers and husbandmen enjoy these luxuries more than the inhabitants of the city; and again, of those same inhabitants of the city, the craftsmen more than those who are drunken all the day. What too of the earth, is not this left common to all? 'No,' he says. How do you say so? Tell me. 'Because the rich man, even in the city, having gotten himself several acers, raises up long fences round them; and in the country cuts off for himself many portions.' What then? When he cuts them off, does he alone enjoy them? By no means, though he should contend for it ever so earnestly. For the produce he is compelled to distribute among all, and for you he cultivates grain, and wine, and oil, and everywhere ministers to you. And those long fences and buildings, after his untold expense and his toils and drudgery he is preparing for your use, receiving from you only a small piece of silver for so great a service. And in baths and everywhere, one may see the same thing happening; the rich of it all with perfect ease. And his enjoyment of the earth is no more than yours; for surely he does not fill ten stomachs, and you only one. 'But he partakes of costlier foods?' Truly, this is no mighty superiority; however, even here, we shall find you to have the advantage. For this costliness is therefore thought by you a matter of envy because the pleasure with it is greater. Yet this is greater in the poor man's case; yet not pleasure only, but health also; and in this alone is the advantage with the rich, that he makes his constitution feebler and collects more abundant sources of disease. For the poor man's diet is all ordered according to nature, but his through its excess results in corruption and disease.

Sunday, September 20, 2009--Sunday after the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross

The Reading is from the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Galatians (2:16-20)

Brothers and Sisters:

You know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Crhist; it is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ver. 19: For I through the Law died to the Law.
This may be viewed in two ways; it is either the law of grace which he speaks of, for he is accustomed to call this a law, as in the words, "For the law of the Spirit of life made me free": (Romans 8:2) or it is the old Law, of which he says, that "by the Law itself he has become dead to the Law." That is to say, the Law itself has taught me no longer to obey itself, and therefore if I do so, I shall be transgressing even its teaching. How, in what way has it so taught? Moses says, speaking of Christ, "The Lord God will raise up unto you a Prophet from among you of your brethren, like me; you shall listen to him." (Deuteronomy 18:15) Therefore they who do not obey Him, transgress the Law. Again, the expression, "I through the Law died unto the Law", may be understood in another sense: the Law commands all its precepts to be performed, and punishes the transgressor; therefore we are all dead to it, for no man has fulfilled it. Here observe, how guardedly he assails it; he does not says, the Law is dead to me; but, I am dead to the Law; the meaning of which is, that, as it is impossible for a dead corpse to obey the commands of the Law, so also is it for me who have perished by its curse, for by its word am I slain. Let it not therefore lay commands on the dead, dead by its own act, dead not in body only, but in soul, which has involved the death of the body. This he shows in what follows:

Ver. 19, 20. That I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ.
Having said, I am dead, lest it should be objected, how then do you live? He adds the cause of his living, and shows that when alive the Law slew him, but that when dead Christ through death restored him to life. He shows the wonder to be twofold; that by Christ both the dead was begotten into life, and that by means of death. He here means the immortal life, for this is the meaning of the words, That I might live to God I am crucified with Christ. How, it is asked, can a man now living and breathing have been crucified? That Christ has been crucified is manifest, but how can you have been crucified, and yet live? He explains it thus;

Ver. 20. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
In these words, "I am crucified with Christ", he alludes to Baptism and in the words "nevertheless I live, yet not I", our subsequent manner of life whereby our members are mortified. By saying "Christ lives in me", he means nothing is done by me, which Christ disapproves; for as by death he signifies not what is commonly understood, but a death to sin; so by life, he signifies a delivery from sin. For a man cannot live to God, otherwise than by dying to sin; and as Christ suffered bodily death, so does Paul a death to sin. "Mortify," he says, "your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion" (Colossians 3:5), and again, "our old man was crucified" (Romans 6:6) which took place in the Bath. After which, if you remain dead to sin, you live to God, but if you let it live again, you are the ruin of your new life. Paul, however, did not do this, but continued entirely dead; if then, he says, I live to God a life other than that in the Law, and am dead to the Law, I cannot possibly keep any part of the Law. Consider how perfect was his walk, and you will be transported with admiration of this blessed soul. He does not say, "I live", but, "Christ lives in me"; who is bold enough to utter such words? Paul indeed, who had harnessed himself to Christ's yoke, and cast away all worldly things, and was paying universal obedience to His will, does not say, "I live to Christ", but what is far higher, "Christ lives in me". As sin, when it has the mastery, is itself the vital principle, and leads the soul wherever it will, so, when it is slain and the will of Christ obeyed, this life is no longer earthly, but Christ lives, that is, works, has mastery within us. His saying, "I am crucified with Him; I no longer live, but am dead", seeming incredible to many, he adds,

Ver. 20. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.
The foregoing, says he, relates to our spiritual life, but this life of sense too, if considered, will be found owing to my faith in Christ. For as regards the former Dispensation and Law, I had incurred the severest punishment, and had long ago perished, "for all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God". (Romans 3:23) And we, who lay under sentence, have been liberated by Christ, for all of us are dead, if not in fact, at least by sentence; and He has delivered us from the expected blow. When the Law had accused, and God condemned us, Christ came, and by giving Himself up to death, rescued us all from death. So that the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith. Had not this happened, nothing could have averted a destruction as general as that which took place at the flood, but His advent arrested the wrath of God, and caused us to live by faith. That such is his meaning appears from what follows. After saying, that "the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith", he adds,

Ver. 20. In the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
How is this, O Paul! why do you appropriate a general benefit, and make your own what was done for the whole world's sake? For he says not, "Who loved us", but, "Who loved me". And besides the Evangelist says, "God so loved the world" (John 3:16) and Paul himself, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up", not for Paul only, but, "for us all" (Romans 8:32) and again, that "He might purify for himself a people for his own possession" (Titus 2:14). But considering the desperate condition of human nature, and the ineffably tender solicitude of Christ, in what He delivered us from, and what He freely gave us, and kindled by the yearning of affection towards Him, he thus expresses himself. Thus the Prophets often appropriate to themselves Him who is God of all, as in the words, "O God, you are my God, early will I seek You." (Psalm 63:1) Moreover, this language teaches that each individual justly owes as a great debt of gratitude to Christ, as if He had come for his sake alone, for He would not have grudged this His condescension even if only for one, so that the measure of His love to each is as great as to the whole world. Truly the Sacrifice was offered for all mankind, and was sufficient to save all, but those who enjoy the blessing are the believing only. Nevertheless it did not deter Him from His so great condescension, that not all would come; but He acted after the pattern of the supper in the Gospel, which He prepared for all, (Luke 14:16) yet when the guests did not come, instead of withdrawing the food, He called in others. So too He did not despise that sheep, though only one, which had strayed from the ninety and nine. (Matthew 18:12) This too in like manner St. Paul intimates, when he says, speaking about the Jews, "For what if some were without faith, shall their want of faith make the faithfulness of God have no effect? God forbid: indeed let God be found true, but every man a liar. " (Romans 3:3-4) When He so loved you as to give Himself up to bring you, who were without hope, to a life so great and blessed, can you, thus gifted, have recourse to things gone by?

Sunday, September 6, 2009--13th Sunday of Matthew

September 8--The Nativity of the Theotokos

Hymns from the Lete (procession):

Today brings the first fruits of our salvation, O peoples! She who was predestined from past generations, the Mother and Virgin, the tabernacle of God, is born of a barren woman: a bud has blossomed from the root of Jesse. Let our forefather Adam rejoice, and let Eve be glad with joy! Behold, our first mother, who was formed from the side of Adam, proclaims her daughter and descendant blessed as she says, "Deliverance has been born for me! I am going to be set free form the bonds of Hades!" David rejoices with his harp and blesses the Lord our God, for today the Virgin comes forth from a sterile womb for the salvation of our souls!

Come, O friends of the Virgin! All you who love purity, draw near with all your heart to the glory of virginity, the fountain of life flowing from the barren rock, the bush born from the childless barren one in order to contain the immaterial Fire that cleanses and enlightens our souls.

What is this present sound of feasting? Anna and Joachim mystically exult with joy as they say, "Rejoice today with us, O Adam and Eve: for if you once closed Paradise by your transgression, we have now been given an illustrious fruit, Mary, the handmaid of God, who reopens the entrance to Eden to all mankind!"

The Queen of all, whom God has predestined forever to be the temple of his eternal divinity, comes forth today, filling with glory th ewomb of the once barren Anna. Through her, the imprudence of Hades has been trampled; Eve, the mother of the human race, enters forever into the assurance of life. Let us cry out to her as is right, "Blessed are you among women, O Virgin Mary, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus!"

On this glorious feast day, which is all ours, let us play as with a harp, for on this day is born from the stem of David the Mother of Light who dispelled darkness. She is the source of immortality, the renewal of Adam and Eve. Through her we were made godly and delivered from death. O Faithful, let us then cry out to her in the words of Gabriel: "Hail, O woman full of grace, the Lord is with you! Through you the Lord will bestow great mercy upon us all!"

Hymns from the Aposticha

On this day a great joy has shone upon us from the two just ones, Joachim and Anna; and this joy is the most honorable Virgin who, because of her purity, will become a living temple of God, and who alone will be recognized as the Mother of God. Through her intercessions, O Christ our God, send down peace upon the world and your great mercy upon our souls!

O Virgin, today you were born a most noble child from the two just ones, Joachim and Anna, as the angel had promised in his announcement. To God you are a heaven, a throne, and a vessel of holiness. To the whole world, a herald of joy the cause of our life, the blessing that wiped out the curse. You are the reason for all the blessings of God. O Maiden whom God has chosen, on this day of your nativity, obtain peace and great for our souls.

Today Anna the barren one claps her hands for joy, the earth is bathed in light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy all blessings, and whole universe rejoices: for the Queen and spotless Bride of the Father comes forth form the stem of Jesse. Behold: no woman will ever again bear a child in sorrow or anxiety, for joy has come forth in abundance and life has filled the world. Joachim's offerings shall no more be rejected, for the tears of Anna have now been turned into joy. And now Anna can say: "Rejoice with me, all you chosen ones of Israel, for th eLrod has given me the palace of his divine and living glory, to be a place of joy and happiness for the whole universe and for the salvation of our souls!"

Come, all you faithful, let us hasten to the Virgin: for long before her conception in the womb, the one who was destined to be born from the stem of Jesse was destined to be the Mother of our God. The one who is the treasury of virginity, the flowering Rod of Aaron, the object of prophecies, the child of Joachim and Anna, is born today and the world is renewed in her. Through her birth, she floods the Church with her splendor. O holy Temple, Vessel of the Godhead, Model of virgins and Strength of kings: in you the wondrous union of the two natures of Christ was realized. We worship him and glorify your most pure birth, and we magnify you!

Apolytikion (Dismissal Hymn)

Your Nativity, O Mother of God, heralded joy to the whole universe, for from you rose the Son of Justice, Christ our God; taking away the curse, he imparted the blessings, and by abolishing Death, he gave us everlasting life.

4th Sunday of Matthew--July 5, 2009

The Reading is from the Epistle of Holy Apostle Paul to the Romans (6:18-23)

Brother and Sisters,
having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

From the Commentary of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Romans (Homily 11)

Now what does Paul say is the cause of all the evils? the love of money. for the "love of money is the root of all evils." (1 Tim. 6:10). From this come fightings, and enmities and wars; from this emulations and railings and suspicions, and insults; from this murders and thefts, and violations of sepulchers. through this, not cities and countries only, but roads and habitable and inhabitable parts, and mountains and groves and hills, and, in a word, all places are filled with blood and murder. And not even from the sea has this evil withdrawn, but even there also with great fury has it revelled, since pirates beset it on all sides, thus devising a new mode of robbery. Through this have th elaws of nature been subverted, and the claims of relationship set aside, and the laws of piety itself broken through. For the slavery of money has armed, not against the living only, but even against the departed as well, the right hands of such men. And at death even, they make no truce with them, but bursting open the sepulchers, they put forth their impious hands even against dead bodies, and not even him that has let go of life will they allow to be let go from their plotting...

For this evil it is, this assuredly, which fills all places with blood and murder, this lights up the flame of hell, this makes cities as wretchedly off as a wilderness, even much worse. for those that beset the high roads, one can easily be on one's guard against, as not always on the attack. But they who in the midst of cities imitate them are so much the worse than they, in that these are harder to guard against, and dare to do openly what the others do with secrecy. for those laws, which have been made with a view to stopping their iniquity, they draw even into alliance and fill the cities with this kind of murders and pollutions. Is it not murder, I ask, and worse than murder, to hand the poor man over to famine and to cast him into prison, and to expose him not to famine only but to torture too, and to countless acts of insolence?

For even if you do not do these things yourself to him, yet you are the occasion of their being done, you do them more than the ministers who execute them. The murderer plunges his sword into a man at once, and after giving him pain for a short time, he does not carry the torture any farther. But do you who by your calumnies, by your harassings, by your plottings, make light darkness to him, and set him upon desiring death ten thousand times over, consider how many deaths you perpetrate instead of one only? And what is worse than all, you plunder and are grasping, not impelled to it by poverty, without any hunger to necessitate you, but that your horse's bridle may be spattered over with gold enough, or the ceiling of your house, or the capitals of your columns. And what hell is there that this conduct would not deserve, when it is a brother, and one that has shared with yourself in blessings unutterable, and has been so highly honored by the Lord, whom you, in order that you may deck out stones and floor, and the bodies of animals with neither reason nor perception of these ornaments, are casting into countless calamities? And your dog is well attended too, while man, or rather Christ, for the sake of the hound, and all these things I have named, is straitened with extreme hunger. What can be worse than such confusion? What more grievous than such lawlessness as this? What streams of fire will be enough for such a soul?

He that was made in the Image of God stands in unseemly plight, through your inhumanity; but the faces of the mules that draw your wife glisten with gold in abundance, as do the skins and woods which compose that canopy. And if it is a seat that is to be made, or a footstool, they are all made of gold and silver. But the member of Christ for whom also he came here from heaven, and she his precious blood, does not even enjoy the food that is necessary for him, owing to your greediness. But the couches are mantled with silver on every side, while the bodies of the saints are deprived even of necessary clothing. And to you Christ is less precious than anything else, servants or mules or couch or chair or footstool...

But if you are shocked at hearing this, stand apart from doing it, and then the words spoken will not harm you. Stand apart and cease from this madness. For plain madness it is, such eagerness about these things. Therefore letting go of these things, let us look up, late as it is, toward heaven, and let us call to mind the day which is coming, let us contemplate that awful tribunal, and the exact accounts, and the incorruptible sentence. Let us consider that God, who sees all these things, sends no lightning from heaven; and yet what is done deserves not thunderbolts merely...

Pondering all this then, let us be awestruck with the greatness of his love toward man, and let us return to that noble origin which belongs to us, since at present certainly we are in no better plight than the creatures without reason, but even in a much worse one. For they love their relatives, and need but the community of nature to cause affection towards each other. but you who besides nature have countless causes to draw yourself together and attach yourself to the your own members; being honored with the Word, partaking in one religion, sharing in countless blessings; you have acquired a wilder nature than they, by displaying so much carefulness about profitless things, and leaving the Temples of God to perish in hunger and nakedness, and often surrounding them also with a thousand evils...

Have you not heard the Apostles say, that they who first received the word sold both "houses and lands" (Acts 4:34), that they might support the brothers and sisters? but you plunder both houses and lands, that you may adorn a horse, or wood-work, or skins, or walls, or a pavement. And what is worse is that it is not men only, but women too are afflicted with this madness, and urge their husbands to these empty sort of pains, by forcing them to lay out their money upon anything rather than the necessary things.

And if anyone accuse them of this, they are practiced with a defence, itself loaded with much to be accused. For both the one and the other are done at once, says one. What say you? are you not afraid to utter such a thing, and to set the same store by horses and mules and couches and footstools, as by Christ who is hungering? Or rather not even comparing them at all, but giving the larger share to these, and to him meting out with difficulty a scant share? Do you not know that all things belong to him, both you and yours? Do you not know that he fashioned your body, as well as gave you a soul, and apportioned you the whole world? but you are not for giving a little recompense to him. But if you rent out a little hut, you require the rent with the utmost rigor, and though reaping the whole of his creation, and dwelling in so wide a world, you do not have the courage to lay down even a little rent, but have given up yourself and all that you have to vainglory...

The horse is no better above his natural excellence for having this ornament, neither is the person mounted on him, for sometimes he is even held in less esteem because of it; since many neglect the rider and turn their eyes to the horse's ornaments, and to the attendants behind and in front, and to the fan-bearers. But the man who is lackeyed by these, they hate and turn their heads from him as a common enemy.

But this does not happen when you adorn your soul, for then men and angels and the Lord of angels all weave for you a crown. And so, if you are in love with glory, stand part form the things which you are now doing, and show your taste not in your house, but in your soul, that you may become brilliant and conspicuous. For now nothing can be more cheap than you are, with your soul unfurnished, and but the handsomeness of your house for a screen...

For if a person were to leave your wife to be clad in rags and to be neglected, and clothed your maid-servant with brilliant dresses, you would not bear it meekly, but would be exasperated and say that it was insulting in the extreme. Reason then in this way about your soul. When you display your taste in walls, then, and pavement and furniture and other thins of this kind, and do not give liberally in alms or practice the other parts of a religious life, you do nothing less than this, or rather what is worse than this by far. For the difference between servant and mistress is nothing, but between soul and flesh is a great disparity. But if it be so with the flesh, much more is it with a house or a couch or a footstool. What kind of excuse then do you deserve, who put silver on all these, but have no regard for flesh, though it be covered with filthy rags, squalid, hungry and full of wounds, torn by hounds unnumbered (Luke 16:20, 21); and after all this you fancy that you shall get glory by displaying your taste in externals which are wound around you? And this is the very height of frenzy, that while you are ridiculed, reproached, disgraced, dishonored, and falling into the severest punishment, you are still vain concerning these things! Therefore, I beseech you, laying all this to heart, let us become sober-minded, late as it is, and become our own masters, and transfer this adorning from outward things to our souls. for so it will abide safe from spoiling, and will make us equal to the angels, and will entertain us with unchanging good...

3rd Sunday of Matthew--Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (6:22-33)

The Lord said: "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. but if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' for the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."

From the Commentary of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 20

vs. 22: The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.

He leads his discourse to the things which are more within the reach of our senses. I mean, since he had spoken of the mind as enslaved and brought into captivity, and there were not many who could easily understand what he meant, he transfers the lesson to outward things which lie before people's eyes, that by these images the other concepts also might reach their understanding. Thus, "If you do not know," he says, "what it means to be injured in mind, learn it from the things of the body; for just what the eye is to the body, so the mind is to the soul." So, just as you would not choose to wear gold, and to be clad in silken garments, if your eyes would at the same time be put out, but rather you account their sound health more desirable than all such superfluous show (for, if you should lose this health or waste it, all your life besides that will do you no good: for just as when the eyes are blinded, most of the energy of the other members is gone, since their light is quenched; so also when the mind is depraved, your life will be filled with countless evils): and so just as this is our aim in the body, namely to keep the eye sound, so also the mind in the soul. but if we mutilate this, which ought to give light to the rest, by what means are we to see clearly any more? For as he that destroys the fountain, dries up also the river, so he who has quenched the understanding has confounded all his activities in this life. Therefore he says, "If the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?"

For when the pilot is drowned, and the candle is put out, and the general is taken prisoner; what sort of hope will there be, after that, for those that are under command?

Thus then, he omits now to speak of the plots to which wealth gives occasion, the strifes, the suits (these indeed he had signified above, when he said, "The adversary shall deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer"); and sets down what is more grievous than all these, as sure to occur, and so he withdraws us from the wicked desire. For to inhabit the prison is not nearly so grievous as for the mind to be enslaved by this disease; and going to prison may not necessarily happen, but the enslavemnt of the mind is connected as an immediate consequent with the desire of riches. And this is why he puts it after the first, as being a more grievous things, and sure to happen.

For God, he says, gave us understanding, that we might chase away all ignorance, and have the right judgment of things, and that using this as a kind of weapon and light against all that is grievous or hurtful, we might remain in safety. But we betray the gift for the sake of superfluous and useless things.

For what is the use of soldiers arrayed in gold, when the general is dragged along a captive? What is the profit of a ship beautifully equipped, when the pilot is sunk beneath the waves? What is the advantage of a well-proportioned body, when the sight of the eyes is stricken out? So then, just as if someone should make the physician sick (who should be in good health, that he may end our diseases), and then tell him to lie on a silver couch, and in a chamber of gold, this will not help the sick persons at all; even so, if you corrupt the mind which has power to put down our passions, even if you set it by a treasure, so far from doing it any good, you have inflicted the very greatest loss, and have harmed your whole soul.

Do you see how by those very things through which men everywhere bring about wickedness, even by these things most of all Christ deters them from it, and brings them back to virtue? "What is your intent in desiring riches?" he says; "Is it not that you may enjoy pleasure and luxury? Why now, this is the very things above all other things that you will fail to obtain by it, but rather you will obtain the exact opposite." For if, when our eyes are stricken out, we do not perceive anything pleasant, because of such a calamity; much more will this be our case in the perversion and maiming of the mind.

3rd Sunday of Matthew--Epistle Reading

The Reading is from the Epistle of the holy Apostle Paul to the Romans (5:1-11)

Brothers and Sisters,
Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man--though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 9, vss. 4-5.



And endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.


Tribulations, that is, are so far from confuting these hopes, that they even prove them. For before the things to come are realized, there is a very great fruit which tribulation has--endurance; and the making of the man that is tried, character. And it contributes in some degree too to the things to come, for it gives hope a vigor within us, since there is nothing that so inclines a man to hope for blessings than a good conscience. Now no man that has lived an upright life is untrusting about things to come, as of those who have been negligent there are many that, feeling the burden of a bad conscience, wish there were neither judgment nor retribution. What then? Do our goods lie in hopes? Yes, in hopes--but not mere human hopes, which often slip away, and disappoint him; when some one, who was expected to patronize him, dies, or has changed circumstances, though he lives. No such lot is ours; our hope is sure and unmovable. For he who has made the promise lives forever, and we who are to be the enjoyers of that promise, even though we should die, we shall rise again, and there is absolutely nothing which can disappoint us, as if we were elated at random and to no purpose upon unsound hopes. Having then sufficiently cleared them of all doubtfulness by these words of his, he does not let his discourse pause at the present time, but urges again in the time to come, knowing that there were men of weaker character, who looked too for present advantages, and were not satisfied with these mentioned. And so he offers a proof for them in blessings already given. For lest any should say, "But what if God is unwilling to give them to us? For that he is able, and that he remains and lives, we all know; but how do we know that he is also willing to do it?" From the things which have been done already. "What things done?" The Love which he has shown for us. "In doing what?" some may say. In giving the Holy Spirit. Therefore after saying "hope does not disappoint us," he goes on to the proof of this, as follows:



"Because, God's love has been," he does not say "given," but "poured out into our hearts," showing its profusion in this way. That gift, then, which is the greatest possible, he has given; not heaven and earth and sea, but what is more precious than any of these, and has rendered us angels from being humans, indeed children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ. But what is this gift? The Holy Spirit. Now had he not been willing to present us after our labors with great crowns, he would never have given us such mighty gifts before our labors. But now the warmth of his love is from now on made apparent, that it is not gradually and little by little that he honors us; but he has poured out the full fountain of his blessings, and this too before our struggles. And so, if you are not exceedingly worthy, do not despair, since you have that love of your Judge as a mighty pleader for you. For this is why he himself ascribed everything not to our well-doings, but to God's love.