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Mark 2:1-12
In order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven we must first come and stand before our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the door, the gate, the way into the Kingdom of heaven. In the Gospel today we heard of one young man who desired to come into the presence of Christ, but was faced with a multitude of obstacles. First, he was paralyzed and could not move himself. But he gathered his friends who agreed to carry him. Second, when they got to the place where Jesus was, they could not make their way through the crowd in order to come to Him. And so the friends came up with a solution to make a hole in the roof and lower the paralytic down through it into the presence of Christ. Only then could the paralytic come before the Lord, but still, due to his own weakness he could not stand in His presence. He required the healing grace of our Lord in order to overcome the paralysis of his body and so properly enter into the presence of the Lord.
The overriding factor in this parable is the disability of the paralytic that prevented him from moving or doing anything for himself. He was completely helpless physically even though his mind and heart were fully active. He recognized his helplessness and desired to be delivered from it and therefore his desire to seek out Jesus Christ – the One he hoped would be able to heal him. Today after only two weeks of Great Lent, we can begin to recognize our own weakness and helplessness even in only the simple matter of keeping the fast, let alone any real spiritual labor. We began the first week full of zeal and hope, attending all the services that we could and making prostrations and bows with great energy. We kept the fast strictly, sometimes even taking food only once a day or once every two days. We get all the way to Sunday and the celebration of Orthodoxy, and then the next week comes around. No longer do we have the excitement and novelty of the first week. The services are no longer new and inspiring, but those that we do have are become somehow “ordinary” and difficult to stand through. And our prayers at home become tedious again – with all those extra prostrations and bows (in the prayer of St Ephraim, for example). And the fast – it too has become annoying; trying to find something, anything, that we can eat that doesn’t taste like mush or cardboard. And so out of frustration and despair we begin to “let up”, to cheat a little, to cut back the prayers. The pressure of “normal life” makes itself felt and the Lenten struggle falls into the background. We find that, like the paralytic, we are weak and helpless. We don’t have the strength even to bring ourselves into the presence of Christ.
The first important thing to realize here is that we are indeed weak and helpless in our own strength. We don’t have the resources or ability to make any progress toward Christ on our own or by our own effort. We are paralyzed by our own sins, by our own fallen nature. And so the only solution is to call on some friends to help us – to pick us up and carry us to Christ.
St Gregory Palamas, in his sermon on this healing, identifies these 4 friends for us: “self condemnation, confession of former sins, promising to renounce evil ways from now on, and prayer to God”. To rephrase these four friends, perhaps we could use the words: “humility, confession, repentance and prayer”. Self-condemnation is when we come to the awareness and knowledge that not only are we weak and helpless, but we are also corrupted and there is in us a barrier to doing anything good and that is our fallen and sinful nature. We need to realize that in ourselves there is nothing good, for all has been tainted by the sin in which we live. It is like sitting in the middle of a mud bath. Even though we may be clean when we enter, as soon as we are dipped into the mud we become covered with dirt and filth. We need to come out of the mud bath in order to be clean. This recognition of our own sinfulness is the root of humility in us. Humility is the sense of our own unworthiness and wretchedness before God.
Once we see that we are covered with the mud and dirt of sin, then we must begin the process of cleaning. That next step is confession – the admission that we have by our own will, cooperated with that sinfulness in thought word and deed. As we see our sins, it is necessary to confess that we have indeed sinned rather than to make excuses for our sins or rationalizations or to project the responsibility off on someone else. We have to look at our own thoughts words and deeds and say, “Yes, by my own will I have sinned and I have done all these things which are contrary to the law of God and which are harmful to myself and my neighbor.” This confession is a necessary step in coming to Christ because without it we cannot recognize our own need for Him and for His grace. The Lord said to the pharisees, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” We have to number ourselves among the sick if we wish to receive healing from the Great Physician.
But it is not enough to admit our sins and errors; having come to the physician we still can depart unhealed. We must also repent – that is we must turn away from our sins and leave them behind. We must make a break with our sinful behavior if we wish to be healed of its paralyzing effects. There is a saying about the foolishness of doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. But too often we do this with our sin – we know that we sin and may even desire to overcome that sin, but we keep going back to the things that produce that sin in us. Its like a diabetic continuing to eat sugar because he has a “sweet tooth” even though he knows that to do so will cause himself physical harm and even death. Until you leave your sin behind in all its manifestations and precursors, you cannot be rid of it. Therefore, we must at least resolve to cease from the sins that we recognize in ourselves.
Even so, if we resolve to put our sins behind us, too often we find ourselves chained to those sins such that we are pulled back time and time again into the mud. In order to overcome this we need our fourth “friend”: prayer. Even if we are not yet able to come and stand before our Lord, we can call out to Him for help and strength in making this effort. It is, in fact, prayer that energizes every spiritual effort that we make. Without prayer, without calling to God for help, all of our labors are in vain. He is our help, He is our strength, He is our salvation.
Here are our 4 friends – the friends that we take with us, our companions throughout Lent and even throughout our lives: humility, confession, repentance and prayer. All of these are within our capacity, if we choose to follow them. We can foster humility within ourselves by the honest recognition of our own worthlessness and inherent sinfulness. If we deny ourselves even in our inner thoughts – refusing to agree to the internal fantasy that we are “OK”. This inner self-denial is at the core of every other act of self-denial throughout Lent. Having set our hearts on the path towards humility, the second step is to confess our sins – if we are infected with sinfulness, then we will sin. Here is where we begin to take up our cross – by admitting that we have indeed sinned, that is that we have acted in accordance with the sinfulness that infects our nature. Having recognized and confessed our sins, we then repent and turn away from our sins, at least in our resolve: making the choice not to repeat our errors inasmuch as it is within our strength and to actively resist following that path in our lives. Let me say here that not only does this entail resisting the sin, but it also includes removing those things from our lives that lead us to sin. To return to the example of the diabetic with a sweet tooth – one way he can improve the chance that he will not fall prey to his weakness is to remove any and all sweets from his environment. No sweets in the cupboard, no sweets in the drawer, no sweets in the house at all. So with our sins – it is good to identify those things which lead us into temptation and to remove them from our environment and from our routine. And if you can’t get rid of it entirely, then place as many barriers as you can between yourself and that temptation producing element. And finally: Pray. Have a routine or rule of prayer that you follow daily – this is your baseline, the foundation of all your other prayer. Pray throughout the day – every time the thought of sin appears, make the sign of the cross and run to the refuge of prayer asking for our Lord’s mercy and help.
These four helpers will bring you into the presence of Christ and once there, He will have compassion on you, He will forgive your sins, releasing you from the chains of your paralysis and heal you of the effects of sin which bind you and hinder you on the path of salvation. Lean on your four friends, humility, confession, repentance and prayer, for they are the ones who will bring you into the presence of our Lord in order that He might have compassion on you and heal you of all your infirmities and bring you into His heavenly kingdom.
Having just passed through Clean Week, you may have cleaned out your refrigerator of all non-fasting foods, or used the nice weather to engage in a little spring cleaning around the house. But this time is given to us for the cleaning out our hearts as we prepare to draw closer and closer to our Lord during the sanctifying days of Great Lent and Holy Week. But why do we need to clean out our hearts?
The closer one approaches to holy things, the more is required of us in preparation. We see this when the Israelites broke camp on their journey through the wilderness. It was Moses, Aaron and his sons who would cover the Ark of the Covenant and place rods through the rings of the ark with which it could be carried. The sons of Kohath, a group of Levites, would then carry the ark. Other Levites were responsible for the tent itself, or with the framing of the tabernacle. All was done with care, but the closer one gets to God, the more care must be taken, lest they die. That was the warning they were given.
In the Canon of Saint Andrew this week, we heard about an incident that occurred when the Ark was being returned to Jerusalem after being taken away by the Philistines as spoils of war. The ark had been a terror to the Philistines and so they were eager to be rid of it. As the Israelites brought it back to Jerusalem on a cart, one of the oxen slipped and a man named Uzzah reached out and tried to steady the ark and was struck dead for his presumption. Death was indeed the punishment for lack of care.
King David was frightened by this incident, and decided that it might be better not to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem, and so it remained in the home of Obed-Edom for the next 3 months. In that three months, Obed-Edom was greatly blessed by the presence of the Ark. What was a curse to the Philistines was a blessing to him.
This morning we celebrate the first and second findings of the head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John. After his beheading, The daughter of Herodias buried the head far away from his body beneath a pile of filth, fearing that God might raise him up again. Saint Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, saw where the head was buried and retrieved it. She placed it in a clay pot and buried it more properly.
In the reign of Saint Constantine, Saint John directed two monks to where his head was buried. The monks proved to be poor guardians of such a holy relic, and so the head of the Forerunner was given to a simple potter without even telling him what it was. Like Obed-Edom with whom the Ark remained, this potter was blessed abundantly. He treated this holy relic with honor and reverence and was rewarded for his faithfulness.
Today we also celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy which commemorates the Restoration of Holy Icons to the Church after over 100 years of iconoclasm. In the 8th and 9th centuries, Emperors mandated the removal of icons from Churches, public places, even from homes and monasteries. They did not stop, however with the removal of icons. They also showed their disrespect to the relics of the saints – burning them or casting them in the sea. Under the pretense of cleansing the Church of idolatry, they dishonored the things of God and brought condemnation on themselves. In order to protect the head of the Forerunner, it was hidden away until the Restoration of the Holy Icons.
This restoration is a victory, not just for those who love having art in the Church but for the truth of the gospel. It is a proclamation of the truth of the Incarnation. God became man, and in doing so, entered His creation, taking on matter, conversing with men, and sanctifying all of creation. Now the waters are made new again, and become the means of salvation for those who are baptized in them and receive the Holy Spirit. God takes up His abode, not just in a tabernacle or temple in the midst of the people, but in His people. The Saints who have been sanctified by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit are now instruments of God’s grace among us. Their grace-filled relics are not crude matter, or dead men’s bones, but they are holy things that must be treated with honor and reverence for their participation in God’s energies. They are sacred vessels holding heavenly treasures entrusted to them by God. Likewise their icons are not mere portraits, but are the means by which we can see God and look upon the holiness that He imparts to His faithful servants.
The iconoclasts did not stop with the rejection of images and relics, however. One of the arguments made by the iconoclasts was that the only real image of Christ is the Eucharist. This argument was rejected by the Church because the Eucharist is not an image. An image shows but does not share in the essence of the person depicted. The Eucharist is the very reality of Christ, it is His body and it is His blood, and there can be no separation between the Son of God and His body. So the iconoclasts separated the image from the person, the person from his body, and the Son of God from His own body and blood.
The Eucharist is more than the image of God as see in His icon, it is more than a relic – something sanctified and filled by the grace of God. God gives Himself to us in the Eucharist. So how do we show honor and reverence, how do we make ourselves worthy, not just to be in His presence, but to receive His presence within ourselves? The first thing is to purify ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit – we clean ourselves.
We must purge sin and evil from our hearts through confession of our sins, asking forgiveness of one another, by setting right things that we have made wrong in our weakness, and by repentance – turning away from our sin, and moving toward God.
One of the dangers that we face is that God seldom strikes us dead in our iniquities. Perhaps we come to communion poorly prepared, and yet God gives us another day. So we assume from this that we don’t have to worry too much about our sinfulness. Over time, we become negligent and callous about our sin, when God is merely trying to afford us another opportunity to repent.
Saint Paul told the Corinthian Church: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”
We are called to examine ourselves, even to judge ourselves. If we do not, we may become sick – not necessarily something bacterial, viral, or cancerous -- but sickness in our hearts our minds, which sometimes manifests physically as well. If we can’t see that the Eucharist is the body and blood of the Lord, we are sick. If we cannot find abundant life in receiving communion, we are sick. If we are not changed in ways that others can see we are sick, and if we grow bold in our presumption we are sick; and these sicknesses are unto death.
So we must cleanse ourselves, and we must prepare ourselves. We are called to fast before approaching the chalice. We don’t fast from things that are evil – those things we should have nothing to do with ever. Instead, we fast from good things for the sake of receiving something far better. So in addition to regularly fasting, we also abstain from all food and drink from midnight the night before receiving communion (and yes, that would include coffee). We are also called to fast from marital relations before the night before receiving. I would also suggest fasting from anything that might distract us from our preparation – entertainment, news, or the internet.
We are also called to pray. We pray always, but when we desire to receive the Eucharist, we must pray the prayers of Preparation for Holy Communion. These are an essential part of making ourselves ready to receive Christ. If we want to partake of the very body and blood of our Lord, we need to first warm our hearts, to accustom ourselves to being in His presence, and make ourselves receptive to this great grace of God.
Our good and merciful God desires to make His abode within us. We are His tabernacles and temples. But we must never forget what an awesome responsibility it is to receive our God Who is a consuming fire. It is dangerous to receive if we are mired in our sins, or if we are not properly prepared, but the greatest of blessings if we are. We can never make ourselves worthy of such a great gift, but we must strive to drive sin from our lives and cleanse and prepare ourselves to receive this gift because God desires to give Himself to us.
Matt 6:14-21
Today, we stand on the threshold of Great Lent. The Gospel encompasses two great themes of this day – forgiveness and fasting. Forgiveness Vespers this evening will mark the beginning of the fast with that necessary moment of asking forgiveness of one another and forgiving one another. This morning, however, let us contemplate the other great theme of the Gospel and epistle readings – that of fasting. The saints who are experienced in this struggle and who have labored more intensely than many of us have wonderful things to say about fasting and so let us hear the meditations of St Nikolai Velimirovic – his 41st entry in Prayers by the Lake:
With fasting I gladden my hope in Thee, my Lord, Who art to come again.
Fasting hastens my preparation for Thy coming, the sole expectation of my days and nights.
Fasting makes my body thinner, so that what remains can more easily shine with the spirit.
While waiting for Thee, I wish neither to nourish myself with blood nor to take life – so that the animals may sense the joy of my expectation.
But truly, abstaining from food will not save me. Even if I were to eat only the sand from the lake, Thou wouldst not come to me, unless the fasting penetrated deeper into my soul.
I have come to know through my prayer, that bodily fasting is more a symbol of true fasting, very beneficial for someone who has only just begun to hope in Thee and nevertheless very difficult for someone who merely practices it.
Therefore, I have brought fasting into my soul to purge her of many impudent fiancé’s and to prepare her for Thee like a virgin.
And I have brought fasting into my mind, to expel from it all daydreams about worldly matters and to demolish all the air castles, fabricated from those daydreams.
I have brought fasting into my mind, so that it might jettison the world and prepare to receive Thy Wisdom.
And I have brought fasting into my heart, so that by means of it my heart might quell all passions and worldly selfishness.
I have brought fasting into my heart, so that heavenly peace might ineffably reign over my heart, when Thy stormy Spirit encounters it.
I prescribe fasting for my tongue, to break itself of the habit of idle chatter and to speak reservedly only those words that clear the way for Thee to come.
And I have imposed fasting on my worries so that it may blow them all away before itself like the wind that blows away the mist, lest they stand like dense fog between me and Thee and lest they turn my gaze back to the world.
And fasting has brought into my soul tranquility in the face of uncreated and created realms, and humility towards men and creatures. And it has instilled in me courage, the likes of which I never knew when I was armed with every sort of worldly weapon.
What was my hope before I began to fast, except merely another story told by others, which passed from mouth to mouth?
The story told by others about salvation through prayer and fasting became my own.
False fasting accompanies false hope, just as no fasting accompanies hopelessness.
But just as a wheel follows behind a wheel, so true fasting follows true hope.
Help me to fast joyfully and to hope joyously, for Thou, my Most Joyful Feast, art drawing near to me with Thy radiant smile.
Therefore my brothers and sisters, let us fast not just outwardly, but inwardly, bringing the fast to every part of our being – to the heart, the mind, the tongue, to our worries, and to the very soul itself that it might prepare us to joyfully receive the Great Feast of our Lord’s Resurrection and His victory over sin, death and the devil by which he freed us from our captivity and set us again on the path of salvation.
Forgiveness is the great theme of the day. If we do not humble ourselves and ask forgiveness of others, pride will never leave us. If we do not forgive others then the grace of God will depart from us as well. An example of the great necessity and power of forgiveness is illustrated for us in the life of the Holy Martyr Nicephorus. Nicephorus was a layman of Antioch and he had a dear and close friend, the priest Sapricius. The evil one, seeking to sow discord among the servants of God planted the seed of animosity between them and whereas they were once great friends, now they would not even speak to one another and actively avoided one another. Eventually, the grace of God penetrated the heart of Nicephorus and he sent to his friend Sapricius a message begging forgiveness. Sapricius, however refused to respond and his heart hardened towards his former friend even more.
At that time a great persecution arose in Antioch and as a priest Sapricius was singled out and taken before the representatives of the Roman emperor. Sapricius courageously and valiantly proclaimed his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ before the tribunal and so was subjected to torture and imprisonment. Nicephorus, who remained at liberty continued to plead with Sapricius to forgive him but even in prison, even facing death, Sapricius refused to forgive and spurned the pleas of Nicephorus. Even as he was being led to place of execution to be beheaded, his heart remained hardened towards his former friend and his ears deaf to the pleas for forgiveness. Because he ignored the word of the Lord, “Forgive and ye shall be forgiven…” the Lord, exercising His righteous judgement, withdrew his grace from Sapricius and the would-be martyr fell away from the Lord. As the executioner raised the sword to behead Sapricius, as if awaking from sleep he cried out, “Stop! Why are you doing this?”
“Because you refuse to sacrifice to the gods and regard the emperors decree with contempt.” Answered the executioner.
“Don’t harm me! I will worship the gods and offer them oblations; I will do whatever the emperors demand!” Having endured all this for Christ, because he would not forgive, he lost his eternal reward.
Nicephorus, seeing his friend turn away from Christ, cried out begging his friend to repent and return to Christ so as not to lose his reward. When Sapricius refused to listen to his former friend, Nicephorus cried out to the guards, “I am a Christian, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Whom Sapricius denied. Behead me instead of him. I am a Christian and refuse to sacrifice to your gods.”
The soldiers were astonished to heard this, however, after receiving permission from the tribunal, they released Sapricius and executed the martyr Nicephorus in his place. Because of his refusal to forgive, Sapricius lost his reward in the Kingdom of heaven, and because he did not abandon forgiveness and humility, St Nicephorus received the crown of martyrdom and stands with the choir of the martyrs in paradise glorifying God.
My brothers and sisters, as we enter Great Lent, let us forgive and ask forgiveness of one another that we might be filled with the grace of God and not deprive ourselves of the riches and glory of the Kingdom of heaven.
Forgive me a sinner.
As God came to the completion of His creation on the sixth day, we read: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of heaven, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and ever every creeping thing that moves on the earth.’ So God made man; in the image of God He made him; male and female He made them. Then God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of heaven, and over every living thing that moves in the earth.’”
Man is created to image God, to manifest Him in the created order. He is made a lord over creation, in order to continue God’s work of expanding the work of His Creation, and establishing order in Creation as God’s servant and co-laborer.
Even as the world sank into sin, and continues to wallow in it, we are the image of God in the midst of all of this. All of the sin of this world can do nothing but obscure this image which remains. We may look at the Saints who shone so brightly with the uncreated light of heaven and see clearly the image of God, and we may look at tyrants, mass murderers, or abusers of children and struggle to see any of this image, but we are all created to image God in this world. Indeed the martyrs were cruelly tortured because their persecutors did not see what is clearly evident to us, and they saw tyranny as an image of being like a god.
In the parable of the Last Judgment, our Lord says to those on His left hand, those who are condemned in His righteous judgment: “’Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 'I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'”
When they objected, when they claimed to not remember ever seeing Him in such conditions, He replied “'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'”
They didn’t see God in these people, and so they felt justified in not acting. But notice that it doesn’t say, “I was a tyrant, or a mass murderer, or an abuser of children, and you didn’t minister to me.” Rather simply -- I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, I was naked, I was sick or in prison. The more obscured the image, the more we might be forgiven for not seeing the image. But why are these things barriers to us seeing the image of God in our fellow man? All of us are hungry or thirsty at times. How often have we been strangers whether in a foreign land, or even among people of our own who treat us as strangers? Have we never struggled to provide for ourselves, or been brought low through sickness? Even if we have never been imprisoned, have we really never found ourselves in captivity?
We struggle to see the image of God in these situations because we are uncomfortable with them. We don’t want to be any of these things. We labor and toil, we kill and steal, we are consumed with envy, jealousy, and covetousness so that we don’t have to look at these things. The image of a hungry God, or a thirsty God, or a God who is a stranger, or a naked God, or a God who is sick or in prison is not the God we want to worship. And yet this is precisely our God.
In Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians, which some of you should know a little about by now, we read: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” God doesn’t just take on the very best of humanity. He doesn’t descend to earth as an emperor dressed in the finest clothing, standing apart from our human weakness and foreign to our suffering, though He certainly would deserve to do so. He takes on our poverty, and enters into our weaknesses, even into suffering and death. So now especially, our weaknesses are places where God’s image can be clearly seen. But we still must be willing to look.
Part of this looking begins with not looking away. We need to stop recoiling automatically from human suffering, and be willing to look toward it with compassion and love. So feeding the hungry or giving clothing to someone in need, or welcoming someone, or spending time with a sick or dying person, or visiting the prisons are all good things even if we don’t see the image of God there yet. We are at least looking.
Another part of this is to embrace our suffering. We are quickly approaching Great Lent. We will purposefully encounter hunger. We will weaken ourselves to feel the limits of our mortal flesh. We will strive to voluntarily experience what others do because of their circumstances. When we fast, we are closer to our Lord Who also fasted; Who after forty days of fasting was hungry. He draws nearer to us when we fast; when we hunger and thirst after righteousness; and He fills us. If this is the God that we experience during fasting, how can we look at a hungry brother or sister and think that God has forsaken them?
Man was given dominion over all things on earth, not so that we might exploit it, but so that we should serve it as God serves His creation. We should bear fruit in the world, by doing good works, by virtuous living, by venerating the image of God in this world wherever we find it. We should work to set fallen creation in its proper order. The same God who feeds the birds of the heavens, and clothes the grass of the field, who cares for all of His creation, has put into our hands the doing of some of His great work. We are the hands that care and provide for others. If someone is poor and in need, it is because I have not provided for him in his need. If someone is walking around without shoes, perhaps it is because I have not given her a pair of shoes to wear. If someone is alone in their sickness, solitude, or imprisonment, and despairing of God’s love for them, it is because I have not gone to them and loved them for Him.
The epistle reading for today always seems appropriate because it references the eating of meat – specifically meat offered to idols. But there is a greater significance here which ties into the parable of the Last Judgment. Saint Paul says: “But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.” Notice we are caring for the weak, for the lowly, for those who need our help. He continues, “For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.” We sin against God when we sin against His weak brethren. But Saint Paul is clear that this isn’t really about food. It is about our love for others.
If you have nothing to share, if you yourself are poor and destitute, which most of us truly aren’t, you still can approach a suffering person, a person in need, and minister to them. Show them God’s love and care by being His love and care. In doing so, you may begin to see the image of God in them, and you make clearer the image of God in you.
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