FOURTH SUNDAY OF SAINT MATTHEW – FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST |
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“Many
shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness.” (Matt 8:11) Today my dear Christians, in the
Holy Gospel reading, Christ spoke about a man, but not only spoke about him,
He praised him publicly, Christ has done this only on a couple of occasions,
where He praised someone in astonishment. This man was not a Jew; he did not
belong to the true Faith of Israel. He was in fact an idol worshiper, he
believed in false gods. He was a Roman officer by profession, and to be more
precise; by rank he was a centurion, which in today’s analogy, we would
refer to him as a captain in the army. He had a hundred soldiers under his
command and was stationed in the city of Capernaum. As an idolater, one would have
expected him to exhibit the evils, impurities and iniquities of the ancient
world. In the heart of this man, however, were sparks of virtue that
surpassed morally the virtue of many Israelites who belonged to the true
Faith. Unfortunately, this is a phenomenon which can be seen today also. For
example, there are those people who belong to the one and only true Faith,
Christianity; who label themselves as Orthodox Christians, yet in practice,
they do not know the first thing about what it means to be a Christian, so
accordingly, they live not like Christians. They verbally profess that they
are in the true Faith, but in action, they do not even truly believe in God.
The elements of our Faith such as prayer, fasting, attending church,
involvement in the Holy Sacraments is all but unknown and alien to them,
quite simply, they are secular, materialistic people. As Christians of course, we are
all obligated before God, to be more virtuous, righteous and ethical than
the others who belong to imperfect false beliefs; like all the pagans and
heretics. Sadly, this is not the case for many people. What is most
disappointing, many pagans and heretics are by far morally stronger than
many of the Christians; they are righteous in their hearts and virtuous in
their ways, just as this idol-worshiping centurion in today’s Gospel was
in comparison with many of the Israelites of his time. How is this
phenomenon explained? A good and simple example comes to mind, for me to
share with you. It is based on one of the parables our Lord Jesus preached
in a different Gospel. Someone was given a thousand
gold coins. Instead of using the gold wisely, he was slothful and lazy and
so he buried it deep into the earth. There was another man however, who
received half the amount of gold coins which the first man received,
however, this man was
enthusiastic,
conscientious and
a
hard worker. He used his inheritance wisely, and put his thoughts into
action, therefore he not only sustained his inheritance, but he doubled and
tripled the amount he was given. As a result of his efforts, everyone
respected and admired him as they wondered how he, with so little, surpassed
the other man who had twice as much capital to begin with. Let us now see
how this story relates to today’s Gospel passage. The gold which was given
in both cases symbolizes the Christian Faith, which was given to us by God
Himself. Unfortunately, most Christians, to whom this precious treasure of
Orthodoxy was given to, do not cherish it and certainly do not make use of
it. Instead they are lazy, indifferent, uninterested, and often faithless
with atheistic mentalities. They bury the truth of the word of God deep into
the ground and live like pagans, if not worse, yet they demand to be called
Christians. In secular society, if a person wishes to become a citizen of a
different country, it is evident that they must first spend a certain amount
of years in the country blending in and acclimatising to the culture, and
more importantly, respecting and keeping all the civil laws. You see, just
as those people need to make that effort to gain a citizenship; Christians
must also make effort to respect and keep God’s Law and acclimatise to the
Church’s environment, which is made up of Holy Scriptures, Holy Canons,
Holy Traditions; both written and unwritten. By acclimatising to the Church
environment, we earn a legitimate status as Christians before God, and as we
strive to progress spiritually, by accepting and keeping God’s Law and His
commandments; only then will we be granted a citizenship in the Kingdom of
Heaven. Contrary to the things we just
mentioned, when the so-called Christians are overcome by sins and
transgressions, the opposite is often happening to those of false beliefs
and creeds, who by tradition or conscience, bring forth virtues which are
admirable. We see heretics, Jews, Moslems and pagans who follow and practice
with zeal the teachings of their own beliefs and dogmas, while many of us
Christians ignore our Faith, which is the only truth. Unfortunately, most
people think today that it is naïve to say that there is only one true
Faith. Well, if you refuse to believe in the one true God, then naturally
you will think this way. Unfortunately for us, these are the people who
sometimes surpass the Christians in virtue. The ones sitting in darkness do
deeds of good, and those in light, do deeds of evil. They set examples in
virtue, while Christians become pioneers in sin. The fact of the matter is,
that these pseudo-Christians are insulting the name Christianity; In fact
they give people wrong impressions for the true Faith. Let us come back again to the
Centurion. According to the assurance of Christ, Who is the only one Who can
rightly evaluate the worth of each person, the centurion appeared superior
to contemporary Jews; superior in love, superior in faith and superior in
humility. Many of the Jews, in spite of what God’s commandments say about
love; proved to be unloving, even to the dearest people in their lives. The
centurion, he was not like them, he showed love, and for who? His act of
love was for a slave my dear brethren. In those times, slaves were neither
regarded nor treated as people. They had no rights; they were sold and
bought in the same way animals today are sold and bought at farms. They were
often slaughtered, and their flesh was used as food for the Roman fisheries.
And yet for a sick slave, the centurion of today’s Gospel showed great
concern and compassion. He came to Christ, and begged Him to heal the slave.
Another area in which the
centurion was shown to be superior, was humility. Most of the Jews, and
certainly their leaders; the scribes and the Pharisees, even though they
witnessed the majesty and magnificence of Christ every day, did not hesitate
to speak contemptuously about Him. They referred to Him as “the son of the
carpenter” disgracefully, when they would talk about Him. The centurion,
on the other hand, was quick to acknowledge his unworthiness before our
Lord, as he said to Him: “I
am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof”. (Matt 8:8)
He
recognised a moral distance between himself and Christ. When Jesus entered
Capernaum, the centurion went to Him, begging and saying: “Lord,
my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus
saith unto him, I will come and heal him.” (Matt 8:6,7) That
is when the centurion expressed himself to Jesus in public saying aloud in
anguish: “Lord,
I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof.” (Matt 8:8)
This would have been extremely humiliating for a man like the centurion to
do, because he was a man with authority; so to be desperately seeking the
well-being for a slave, especially from the point of view of the Scribes and
Pharisees, this was ridiculous and blasphemous to them because they hated
the fact that he was asking Jesus “the carpenter’s son” for help.
The centurion continued his pleading with Christ, but he felt very
unworthy to bring Christ into his home; and so he said: “Speak the word only, and my
servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers
under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and
he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” (Matt
8:8,9) When
Jesus heard those words, He was truly amazed and He said to the people who
were following Him: “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in
Israel.” (Matt 8:10) Jesus praised the centurion for his
great display of faith and said to him:
“Go
thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.”
(Matt 8:13) and just like that, in an
instant his servant was healed. If we too truly believe and show faith in
Christ, He will praise us as He did to the centurion, however, He will do so
on the Great Day of His Second Coming; on Judgment Day, and He will not only
praise us before all men, but before all the angels in Heaven, and that
praise will be everlasting. Christ also said something else
to the multitude: “Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of
the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt 8:11,12)
What was the message Christ was trying to send here to the people? First of
all, Christ was warning the Jews who so arrogantly declared that they were
God’s chosen people. He was giving them a wake up call because their
hearts had become like as hard as rocks, and because their actions
contradicted their teachings. He said that one day, people from the east and
from the west, meaning Gentiles; will repent and become believers of the
true God and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that those who were
indeed God’s people, who thought themselves to be children of the Kingdom
of Heaven will perish and shall be damned to everlasting torment, where
there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This message was not only for the
old Israel, but also for the new Israel. We, who often boast about being
Orthodox Christians, may one day find ourselves outside of the true Faith,
because of our failure to live the Christian way of life. We are supposed to
be living examples of virtue and beacons of light to help navigate those who
are lost in darkness, back to the harbour of light. When we do not practice
and confess our Faith, then it will be taken away from us, and given to the
non-Christians who repent and seek truth and salvation. Let us then imitate the
actions of the centurion my dear brethren, by begging Christ our God to heal
us, who are slaves not to men, but to our passions; let us again, like the
centurion humble ourselves before Christ our God, and before all men, as we
unworthily ask for God’s mercy, but more importantly, let us ask Christ to
give us faith, so that like the centurion did, we too may please God, and
then maybe our prayers shall be answered. Understand, that we have a far
greater advantage over the centurion, because we are Christians, we have
been baptised in the All Holy Name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, we have put on Christ. We have the Grace of the Holy Spirit
within us, therefore, we have all which is needed to become virtuous
Christians, seeking to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, where we may; like our
Saviour said today: “sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob” unto
the ages of ages. Amen. Hieromonk
Sozómenos |
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