My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE GOSPEL ON MANY CARES AND SUDDEN DEATH (Part II)
By Saint Nikolai Velimirovic, Bishop of Ochrid
(Homily on Luke 12:16-21)
"And he said: 'This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods."
See here the great labors of a man without understanding! Instead of striving to kill the old man in himself and raise up the new man, he invests all his efforts in the pulling down of his old granaries, barns, and farms and building new ones. If his harvest is as abundant the following year, he will again have to labor to extend his old granaries or build yet more. And so his granaries will, from year to year, become a larger and newer, and his soul will become narrower and older, and his old grain will rot away like his soul. He will be surrounded by envy, and curses will be heaped on him, for poor men will look with envy on his riches, and the hungry will curse him for his hardness and selfishness. And so his wealth will bring ruin to him and his neighbors. His soul will be destroyed by heard-heartedness and selfishness, and those of his neighbors by envy and cursing. See how a man without understanding can use God's gift to both his own and other's ruin. God gave him his riches to be blessing and salvation both to him and his neighbors, but he made use of them to bring a curse on himself and others.
Saint John Chrysostom advises all who are open to advice: "Have you eaten your fill? Remember the hungry. Have you quenched your thirst? Remember the thirsty. Are you warm enough? Remember the frozen. Do you live in a richly-furnished house? Remember the homeless into it. Have you made merry at a party? Bring merriment to the sad and sorrowful. Have you been honored as a rich man? Visit and relieve those in need. Have you come out joyful form your master? Make sure all your servants are joyful. If you are merciful and indulgent towards them, you will yourself be shown mercy when your soul leaves your body."
It is said of two great ascetics in the Egyptian desert that they prayed to God to reveal to them whether there was anyone in the world who served Him better than they did. And this was indeed revealed to them: they were told to go to a certain place and to a certain man to find out what they want they wanted to know. They came to the place revealed to them and found a simple man, Efcharistos (Eucharistos) by name, who kept cattle. The ascetics, seeing nothing remarkable about this man, asked him how he tried to fulfill God's will. After long hesitation, Efcharistos told them that he divided all that he earned from his cattle into three parts: he gave one to the poor and needy, one he used for entertaining guests and the third he kept for himself and his chaste wife. Hearing this, the ascetics praised his benevolence and returned home. See how much greater and more pleasing to God charity (philanthropy) is than strict asceticism. But this greedy rich man described in the Gospel had no thought for God, his soul or charity. His one thought was how to extend his barns and how to gather all the fruits from his lands. What, though will he do when he has done all this? Let him tell us himself:
"And I will say to my soul: 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: Take thine ease: eat, drink, and be merry!"
How can the soul eat and drink? The body eats and drinks the harvest of the lands, not the soul. The rich man is thinking of his body when he speaks of his soul. His soul has so completely grown into his body and becomes one with it that he no longer knows it by its name. No clear expression could found for the destructive triumph of the body over the soul. Imagine a lamb in a dog's den, trapped and forgotten in this den. The dog hurries around and drags the food into the den for itself. When it has filled its den with meat, and bones from a variety of carrion, it calls to the hungry lamb: "Now, my dear lamb, eat, drink and be merry; here's food for many days!" Having said this, the dog will fall to, but the lamb will remain hungry and die of hunger. This rich man behaves in the same way with his soul as the dog does with the hungry lamb.
The soul is not fed with food that decays, but he offers it such food. The soul yearns for its heavenly homeland, where its granaries and the source of its life are to be found, but he nails it to the earth and vows it that he will keep it thus nailed down for years. The soul rejoices in God, but he never has God's name on his lips. The soul is nourished by justice and mercy, but it does not occur to him to use his riches to bring justice and mercy to the needy, the poor, and the deformed around his house. The soul desires pure, heavenly love, but he pours oil on the flame of the passions and censes the soul with the filthy smoke that they produce. The soul seeks its adornment: "Love, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23); he, though, decks it with drunkenness, gluttony, adultery, and vanity. How can a vegetarian lamb not die in the company of a carnivorous dog How can the soul not die when pressed down by the heavy cadaver of the body?
Not all the rich man's folly, though, consists of his offering meat to a lamb or, rather, bodily food to the soul, but also in his making himself the lord of time and of life. We see that he prepares himself food and drink "for many years." Hear then, God's reply:
"But God said to him: 'Thou fool; this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" (Source: Orthodox Heritage)
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George