Homily for the tenth week after Pentecost

“I told you all this, because it is fitting for those who labor to intercede for the weak” (Acts 20:35). This is what Apostle Paul said to the Ephesian Christians! If the apostle considered it necessary to remind the Christians of his time about the duty to help the weak: will you be surprised, my listeners, that I want to remind you of the same duty? Even if you could prove by deeds that you remember well and fulfill this duty: and then the servant of the word, expressing joy in your fidelity to your duty, would wish you to improve more in love for the weak. But what if the many orphans wandering homeless through the streets of a rich city, the many poor people who do not know where to lay their heads or how to cover their nakedness, speak without words about the need for a reminder of their duty to the needy? It was not people who came up with the law: “love your neighbor as yourself.” This law is inscribed in our hearts, where no human hand touches; it was given to us by the One who gave both me and you one soul, one body, with the same needs, so that by loving you I love myself. It is clear that by this law we are obliged to love not only those close to us, by kinship or tribe, to whom the affinity of blood draws us, not only those close to us, by the same or higher status, which disposes us to mutual rapprochement, but we are obliged to love also those whom poverty or illness has humiliated before us. They are also people like us, with the same image of God, with the same abilities and needs. They are also children of the same Father in heaven. They are also assigned to the same high goal. If we must love them as ourselves, then what does this mean? This means that we must sacrifice for them everything that we sacrifice for ourselves. What don't we sacrifice for ourselves? This means that we must protect these dressed in rags, suffering from cold and heat, from the elements just as we protect ourselves; We must shelter, feed, and educate these homeless orphans, wandering without supervision, without education, without shelter, as if they were our own children; these sick and decrepit must also be looked after as we wish to be looked after in illness and old age. Is it easy for us to ask others for help? Let us understand how difficult the condition of the mother of hungry and naked orphans, whose shame sealed her lips to beg rich pride for help. Let us understand that in the person of the suffering poor man our own nature suffers, the suffering of which we do not feel only because we do not want to understand. Christians! why know us that we are Christians? “By this they all understand that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” says the Savior (John 13:35). Love is the distinctive, essential sign of a Christian; love is the soul of Christian society. That is why, at the worst time of Christianity, before the end of the world, the love of many will dry up due to the increase of iniquities. And ordinary societies governed by earthly authorities, due to the close ties that unite their members with the unity of earthly goals, are called a single body. The community of Christians is primarily a united and harmonious body; it is governed by a single Head - Christ the Lord, to the same unearthly goal - to eternal salvation, in the spirit of the same law - selfless love. “You are the body of Christ,” says the apostle, “and in parts you are members” (1 Cor. 12:27). If we are members of one body, if love should bind us so tightly together: is there a place among us for indifference to the poor among us? Is there a place for those who have had to own everything only for themselves, and leave the have-nots to the mercy of poverty? When one member suffers in our body, the others also feel pain, heaviness, and weakening. And when the yoke of poverty and misfortune crushes our neighbors: do we - members of a single body - remain indifferent to the suffering of our fellow members? Are we living members? Our head is Christ, to whom, naturally, we must obey in everything. And what was the entire earthly life of our Lord marked by? Deeds of mercy, deeds of charity to the poor, sick, weakened, crippled by illness. What does the very descent of the Son of God onto earth mean? Again love for the suffering: the Son of God took upon himself the image of a slave in order to accomplish the salvation of humanity upset by sin. That is why His convictions to deeds of mercy were so frequent and so urgent. “Blessed are the merciful ones,” He says, “for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). He taught that the poor are His “brothers” (Matthew 25:40); that the less hope there is for us to pay for our services to another, the better for us: “whenever you hold a feast, call the poor, the weak, the lame, the blind: and blessed will you be, for they have no recompense; Let us note, brethren, that our Lord, demanding from the rich man, apparently, the most disinterested love for the poor, does not leave him without hope of payment. Yes, those who apparently have nothing but tears and poverty have much to share with the rich. There should be no other way in the body of Christ; there is nothing useless here. Prayers of grateful poverty are more valuable than gold; they reduce the blessing of God to charitable love; they enrich her with gifts of immortal reward. Christians! we know what a doctor does with a useless, rotten member of the body. He cuts it off. There can be no other judgment for hard-hearted Christians. What does it mean for a Christian to be insensitive to the suffering of his brothers within the body of Christ? What does it mean for a Christian to be unappreciative of beneficent love? It is not only a useless member, but also harmful - useless because it does not provide assistance to others, - harmful because, without providing assistance to its members, it multiplies the suffering of the whole body and creates a burden for it through its inaction. Whoever spares his life only for the enjoyment of life will lose everything; such is the judgment of the Lord. Even if “he wants to save his soul, he will destroy it” (Mark 8:35). Do not be surprised that a Christian society without Christian mutual love suffers from various disorders over time. This is God's temporary judgment - a harbinger of the terrible judgment of eternity over selfishness. “Depart from Me, cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel. Be hungry, and you will not let Me eat. You were thirsty, and did not give me a drink”: this is what the terrible Judge will say to the sons of covetousness at the last judgment (Matthew 25:41–42). Holy Rus'! Blessed Rus'! Why are you so blessed by the Heavenly Father? While in the West everything is terribly worried, you stand calmly, like a powerful giant. Why is this? Because holy love, selfless love, was and remains the beginning of the life of your people; because your children consider it a mercy of God to visit the poor and the stranger: “We ask for mercy,” they say to the stranger; - and your poor have prayed and are praying for your charitable love. ABOUT! May the heavenly Father preserve in you the holy heritage of the fathers! Let the rich, whether out of ignorance or pride, not consider themselves connected with the poor. But even the pagan conscience will agree that we all live only by the grace of the Heavenly Father, and He does more good deeds for us every minute than we can do for others in our entire lives. Therefore, gratitude alone for God’s benefits obliges the rich to take care of the poor. Who gave the rich man the wealth he owns? The works of a rich man? Even if he had truly worked to acquire wealth as much as his wealth was worth, then who gave him the strength to work? No! From Him alone “wealth and glory... in His hand may strength and mercy be magnified and strengthened” (1 Chronicles 29:12). And so, the rich man’s wealth is not his property, but a gift from God. The rich man can only humbly and sincerely thank the beneficent Heavenly Father, and pour out gratitude in acts of charity to the poor. This is the sacrifice that he can make, and that the Lord expects from him! “Do not forget charity and fellowship: for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16). If the wealth of a rich man is a gift from God: then this gift is given, without a doubt, with a purpose and with a purpose worthy of the wise and holy Giver. Why was the gift given to the rich man? Is it for the rich man to satisfy his whims and oppress the weak? But for whom is hell with its torments prepared, if not for fornicators and carnivores, if not for oppressors of weak poverty? Is it so that the rich man can live carelessly in idle peace, for himself alone? But not a single speck of dust in the world exists for itself, without movement useful for others. Or is the rich man endowed with wealth only to pass on a rich inheritance to his children and relatives? But if the purpose of rich parents is limited only to preparing treasures for children and relatives that are decayed by decay and stolen by thieves, and does not concern moral needs, does not enter the realm of the spirit: then what is the purpose of wealth itself? The assignment of useless disrepair, which must be transferred from hand to hand by father to son and son to grandson, carefully and carefully, not at all daring to make any use out of it. The goal is too empty, to say the least. So what? What is wealth given for? So that by deeds of charity the rich man acquires eternal salvation for himself. “Make for yourselves friends of unrighteousness from mammon, so that when you become poor, you will be received into eternal shelter” (Luke 16:9). A high example is offered to the rich - the mercy of the Heavenly Father. “Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). How much a rich man must work when using his wealth in order to get closer to a high example! But if wealth was given to the rich man not for the rich man, but for the poor: does it mean that the poor, living idle, has the right to demand a share of the rich man’s property? Doesn't mean that at all. Wealth is given to the rich, not to the poor. Even though the rich man is nothing more than a steward of someone else’s gift, the gift was given to him for the sake of stewardship, not to the poor man. Until the poor man is given wealth, if he took it, then with what name, by what right, would he take it? With the name of a predator, by right of a robber who takes away what is given to another. Where is the place for a predator if not in hell? The rich will give an account of their wealth, and a strict account. But the poor will not be responsible for the rich in the use of wealth. Let him prepare his report. He will be asked to answer how he endured poverty. The idle rich man has a place in hell: but there is also a place for the idle poor man. I told you all this, as it is fitting for those who labor to intercede for the weak. Amen. You might be interested in: