Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. (Proverbs 6:6)
Every happenstance is like a market day: The person who knows how to do business will make much money, while the person who does not know how to do business will suffer losses. (St. Mark the Monk, Counsels on the Spiritual Life, Kindle 2800-2801)
Then the Lord Jesus spoke this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)
St. John Chrysostom comments:
Why are you so concerned about fleeting things that must be left here? Nothing is more slippery than wealth. Today it is for you; tomorrow it is against you. It arms the eyes of the envious everywhere. It is a hostile comrade, and you acknowledge this when you seek every way to bury and conceal it from view. While the poor are prepared for action, the wealthy wander about, seeking where they may bury their gold, or with whom they may deposit it. Why do you seek your fellow slaves, when Christ stands ready to receive and to keep your “deposits” for you. Those who receive treasures in trust think they have done us a favor. But with Christ it is the contrary, for He says He has received a favor when He receives your deposited treasures. For the guardianship he provides He does not demand a fee, but instead gives you dividends.
You are a stranger and a pilgrim with regard to things here. But you have a country that is your own in the heavens! Transfer there all that you possess…
Would you be rich? Have God for your friend, and you’ll be richer than all men!
(Sermon: The Rich in This World, pp. 4-5, O Logos Publication)
“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:6-9)
The rise of desert monasticism occurred because some Christians hoped they could live a communal life based solely on the Gospel commandments of Christ rather than on the wisdom and power of the world. They rejected the success of imperial Rome and the “Roman Peace” based in worldly power and might. They understood the ways of the world could be more efficient but they believed the means must be consistent with the end rather than that the ends justified the means. They were not willing to sacrifice their morality based in the Gospel commands to achieve their desired goal. Or rather, they saw living in this world according to the Gospel commandments as the goal, not the means to the end. They were not trying to earn their way into the Kingdom of Heaven, rather they were trying to live the up-side-down values of the Kingdom of Heaven while on earth. As they prayed – as in heaven, so on earth – so they tried to live.
These Christians developed an entire literary genre firmly based in these values of the Kingdom – the apophthegm, the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers. These sayings are part of a wisdom literature of the people of God. They are not rules and rubrics, but wisdom based in experience. Sometimes they are simply stories which show how they tried to live together with the only rules being those of the Gospel. What we see in these stories is sometimes even humorous. Today, we might look at them and say how ridiculously impractical for we can see easy solutions to their problems – correct the mistakes and move on. They however wanted to live in the unity of love, and believed they must never ever break that bond of mutual concord. So for example we read this sagacious aphorism:
Once when Abba John was going up from Scete with other brothers, their guide lost his way and it was night. The brothers said to Abba John: “What shall we do, abba, for the brother has lost his way; maybe we will wander off and die?” The elder said to them: “If we tell him he will be grieved and ashamed. But look here: I will pretend to be sick and will say: ‘I cannot travel [further] so I am staying here until dawn,’” and so he did. The rest of them said: “Neither are we going on; we are staying with you.” They stayed [there] until dawn and did not offend the brother. (John Colobos, Give Me a Word, p. 135)
Our pragmatism would smile and say, “just tell the guide he is going the wrong way.” Their dilemma is that they must not break the unity of love between themselves, and so rather than point out the fault or failure of the guide, the one elder feigns illness to stop the guide from going further astray, rather than embarrass the guide by pointing out his fault. They looked not for the most straightforward and pragmatic solution to their “problem” – that they are lost. For them, the real problem was: knowing they are lost, how do they stop the guide from making everything worse without shaming him.
“Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)
The values of the Kingdom must be lived, and so without ever pointing out the guide’s error, they found a way to stop and wait for daylight to see where they were. The Light of Christ would shine on them, but they had to find the way to get to that point without offending the guide. And in this story, everybody else except the guide knew they were lost. It isn’t majority rule in the Kingdom, it is majority love.
Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)
As we have made it through one complete week of the New Year, we can consider our spiritual renewal – whether or not we made New Year’s resolutions, the beginning of a year is a good time to reflect on our spiritual life and commitment. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We Orthodox engage in evaluating our lives in the sacrament of confession, in our daily examination of conscience, in meditating upon the Scriptures and spiritual writings, in our liturgical services, in our talks with our Father confessors and with our fellow Christians.
Here is a meditation from St. Francis of Assisi on how virtue drives out vice. We might use this to combat both sins of commission and sins of omission.
“Where there is charity and wisdom
There is neither fear nor ignorance.
Where there is patience and humility,
There is neither anger nor disturbance.
Where there is poverty with joy,
There is neither covetousness nor avarice.
Where there is fear of the Lord to guard the house (cf. Lk 11:21),
There the enemy cannot gain entry.
Where there is mercy and discernment,
There is neither excess nor hardness of heart.”
“When we want to correct someone usefully and show him he is wrong, we must see from what point of view he is approaching the matter, for it is usually right from that point of view, and we must admit this, but show him the point of view from which it is wrong. This will please him, because he will see that he was not wrong but merely failed to see every aspect of the question.” (Blaise Pascal, in Peter Kreeft’s Christianity for Modern Pagans, p. 39)
Robert Morris’s painting, Private Silence/ Public Violence, which I saw some years ago at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, is certainly timely. The many recent reports of sexual misconduct by famous people shows how people keeping silence enables public violations/ violence to take place. The #Me Too Moment has blossomed, rightfully disgracing some while empowering others. Pascal writing in the 17th Century points how change can take place – by showing people from what point of view their behavior is wrong.
One of the multitude said to Jesus, “Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.” But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” And he said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:13-15)
Wisdom is as an essential element of our Scriptures and Tradition as is any set of rules or rubrics that have been offered to the faithful. And yet, Wisdom is often given a secondary place in the pedagogy of the Church as many in leadership roles prefer to lay down the law of God rather than to wrestle with Wisdom. In the early Church they relied on the Book of Proverbs as a manual for instructing catechumens, to prepare them for baptism and living the life in Christ. To this day the Orthodox continue to read Proverbs during Great Lent as a source for wisdom in living in a fallen world.
Besides the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, there also emerged in the early centuries of the Church’s history the Wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers – not lives of the saints but wise sayings designed to make us think about how to live the Gospel. This wisdom literature is related to the parables that Jesus taught in which He did not give law, but rather offered instruction for all believers to ponder. The parables like the wisdom sayings often have a hidden, deeper meaning to them.
The following story from the desert fathers gives us a sense in which wisdom was understood to be different from the Law. Law involves a more black and white thinking while wisdom considers how and when to apply the law or when it is correct to vary it. For example, a stop sign is the law. But that stop sign can never tell the driver when to go – to take that action requires wisdom. In this story a monk wants to know what to do with an inheritance he has received. Perhaps he was trying to avoid deciding himself what to do so he wouldn’t make the wrong choice. He wants the monastery abbot to decide for him – not to give him a word, but give him a rule. Abba Poemen wants the monk to learn to live the Gospel himself. Poemen offers an answer to the monk in terms of wisdom: he tells the monk what to do by not telling him what to do.
A brother asked Abba Poemen: “A legacy has been left to me; what shall I do with it?” The elder said to him: “Go away and come in three days then I will tell you.” He came as he had directed him and the elder said to him: “What am I to say to you, brother? If I say to you: ‘Give it to a church,’ they will have banquets there; if I say: ‘Give it to your relative,’ there is no reward for you; but if I tell you: ‘Give it to the poor,’ you will have no worries. Do whatever you like; this is not my business.” (Give me a Word, p. 233)
Poemen shows the monk he has actually considered his request about the inheritance. Giving the money to the church is a good thing, but he realizes it will cause the church community to celebrate and waste some of the money by benefiting no one but themselves. He could simply give the money away to relatives and be free of it himself, a noble thing, but of no spiritual benefit to the monk. Or, the monk could give the money to the poor and not worry about it any more, though humanly speaking people might fear the poor wouldn’t use the money wisely. Any of the actions could be proper for a monk because the monk is freeing himself from the cares of wealth. Each possibility could be good and each has a downside. Poemen is telling the monk to free himself of the inheritance, but refuses to give the monk a rule about it. The monk is going to have to decide for himself how to fulfill the Gospel commands. There may not be just one right answer, only one choice pleasing to God. Poemen, however, refuses to burden himself with the inheritance!
“Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.” (Jeremiah 21:8)
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
The notion that there are two ways through the world – the way of life and the way of death – permeates the Scriptures. They are sometimes dramatically pitted one against the other, and we humans must choose which we will follow.
“O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10)
And yet the same Tradition which is the Two Ways also is the Wisdom Tradition. Wisdom is not law, but rather is the Spirit guiding us in how, when and where, with whom and to what degree we can keep the law.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: … a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-5)
The Tradition which says there are only two ways also provides that we have to know what to do when we are in a grey area, when things are not and aren’t supposed to be black and white. Between black and white there exist gradiation and degrees, some better than others in terms of doing God’s will. All or nothing thinking has its limits and sometimes causes problems and even evil. It can lead people to abandon a good way because of a mistake or sin which causes them to think all is lost. Something is better than nothing is also wisdom. I may not be able to be perfect but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to do as much good as I can. There always is repentance and a spirit of humility which confesses persistent spiritual failure. We fall, and we get up.
We see this Wisdom often in the ascetic literature of the Church.
“Be as eager as you can to love everyone, but if you cannot do this yet, at least do not hate anyone.” (St. Maximus the Confessor, A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, Kindle Loc. 6835-36)
“If you are able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect. But if you are not able, then do what you can.” (Didache, A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, Kindle Loc. 645-46)
An old proverb says, “God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we would listen more and talk less.”
“In I Kings 3:9 Solomon is portrayed as asking the Lord for a ‘listening heart’ that he may be able to judge the people of God and ‘distinguish right from wrong.’ He receives the gift of wisdom, and immediately the famous episode of the two harlots is narrated.”
(Roland Murphy, The Tree of Life, p 2)
Sometimes we come to a crossroads in life where we have to make a decision as to which way to go. It may not always be clear to us which is the “correct” path because more than one path may seem good to us. We might decide we don’t want the responsibility for making the “wrong” decision and therefore seek counsel from a spiritual father. In doing so we might imagine that the responsibility for the decision can then fall upon our spiritual father and all we have to do is obey what advice is given. But sometimes, the wise spiritual adviser knows it is better not to make the choice for the disciple but rather only to present possibilities and put the responsibility for the choice on the disciple.
A brother questioned Abba Poemen saying, “An inheritance has been bequeathed to me; what shall I do with it?” Abba Poemen said to him, “Go, and after three days come to me, and I will give you counsel.” And the brother came, and Abba Poemen said to him, “What counsel shall I give you, O brother? If I tell you to give it to the church, they will make feasts with it; and again, if I tell you to give it to your kinsmen, you will have no reward; but if I tell you to give it to the poor, you will have no further care. Therefore go and do with your inheritance what you please, for I am not able to advise you rightly.” (adapted from The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers (Volume 2), Loc. 661-65)
Abba Poemen advises, yet leaves the choice to the disciple who then bears responsibility for the decision. Poemen, even though asked by the disciple to advise, is careful to leave the choice to the disciple and also the responsibility for the decision.
This thinking we also see in our Lord Jesus who teaches using parables. We have to think about the parables and what they mean and how to apply them to our lives in 21st Century America. Teaching moral living through parables calls the disciple to exercise their God-given gift of free will and to make real choices in life. Parishioners aren’t meant to be kept as children all their lives who must be told what to do by the clergy. They are fully responsible disciples who need to learn the Gospel lessons in order to apply them to every situation and every moment of their lives. God gave us free will and rational thinking – we are to put them to good use. If God wanted us to be automatons, He would have created robots, not humans.
If we constantly speak on contemporary issues and tell parishioners how they must think about everything, we fail to teach as Jesus taught. We are to teach and proclaim the Gospel in order to empower the parishioners to apply those lessons to their lives, to their decision making, to their life choices. They need to learn what is essential from the Gospel in order to learn how to apply the lessons to their own lives. When the preachers decide that contemporary issues are the proclamation, they set aside the Gospel. As one aphorism has it, “When I preached repentance, nothing happened. When I preached joy, nothing happened. But when I preached the Gospel, some repented and some rejoiced.”
Fraternized 