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In first century Rome, there was a certain nobleman named Faustus. He was married to a noblewoman named Matthidia, and they had three sons, twins named Faustinus and Faustinian, and a younger son named Clement. Unfortunately, Faustus also had a brother who was enslaved to passions, particularly the passion of lust, and he desired to take Matthidia for himself. Matthidia, not wanting to bring dishonor upon her family, but also not wanting anything to do with this wicked brother, devised a plan to escape. She told Faustus that she had a vision in a dream of an elderly man who appeared like a god telling her that she must leave Rome with her twin sons or suffer a terrible death.
With reluctance and great sadness, Faustus agreed to let them leave for Athens by boat and that they would return in ten years’ time. A year later, Faustus made enquiries as to how they were doing, only to find out that they had apparently never reached Athens. Years went by with still no news, and so eventually, Faustus left young Clement in the care of his servants and tutors and set out to look for them himself. After searching Athens, and then the coast of Italy, and then anywhere else he could think of, he eventually settled on living like a pauper and a wanderer.
It was at this point that Faustus encountered the Holy Apostle Peter. Faustus had watched Saint Peter praying and shared his opinions with Saint Peter. These opinions sound terribly similar to a common sentiment we hear to this day: “I wish to tell you that in praying you labor in vain, because there is no God either in heaven or on earth. No providence watches over us, and all things happen by chance. You deceive yourself by praying to a God who does not exist.”
Faustus had offered sacrifice to various gods, he had consulted astrologers and oracles, but no one could help him to find his family, and they had in fact told him that his wife and twin sons had died.
Saint Peter replied, “Your prayers remained unanswered for so long because you prayed to many gods, all of whom are false, rather than to the one, true God in Whom we believe, and to Whom we pray…. If you accept the one, true God, Who made heaven and earth, you will be permitted to see your wife and children without further delay.” To which Faustus, replied, Will God raise up my wife and children from the dead?”
When the ship carrying his wife and twins had shipwrecked, Matthidia was washed ashore on an island and taken in by a sailor’s widow with whom she labored with her hands to provide for themselves. As time had gone on, she lost the ability to work and descended further into poverty.
The twins had been taken by pirates and were sold as servants in Caesarea. It was here that they were educated and eventually heard the gospel being preached by the Apostle Peter, and were baptized.
Clement was well educated by his tutors, but after 24 years since the departure of his mother and brothers whom he presumed to be dead, and twenty years after having been left by his father, he began to reflect upon his mortality. In the midst of this he heard of Jesus Christ and all that he had done for us men and for our salvation, and he decided to travel to Judea to learn more from those who had known Him. He began to travel with Saint Barnabas, and was eventually baptized by Saint Peter. While on a ship headed to Syria, he told Saint Peter his story, and Saint Peter knew that Faustinus and Faustinian were his brothers. As they made land on an island, they began to speak to an old woman who revealed her story, and it was clear that she was indeed their mother. Saint Peter healed the old widow who had taken her in, and baptized Matthidia bringing her along on the ship.
So the Lord in His providence had gathered Matthidia, Faustinus, Faustinian, and Clement and reunited them before Saint Peter encountered the broken and despondent Faustus. Faustus was baptized, and he and his family were returned to Rome to live together.
Today we celebrate the memory of Saint Clement, that young boy who was left behind by his family, but who became one of the early bishops of Rome, and a companion of the Apostles.
In the gospel reading this morning, we heard about a woman who was bent over for 18 years, and could not raise herself up. One day, as He was preaching in the Synagogue on the Sabbath, our Lord saw this woman and said, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." He laid His hands on her, and she was made straight, and glorified God. The Pharisees complained saying that there are six other days on which He could heal people, but that he ought not to be performing healings on the Sabbath. Our Lord said, “ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound-think of it-for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
By healing this woman, our Lord allowed her to rest for the first time in 18 years. She had labored, and labored, and labored each Sabbath until this day, and having been given rest, she glorified God.
Both of these stories tell us something about the afllictions of this life, whether it is sickness, death, separation, grief, or worry, we are given burdens in this life. We don’t really get a choice in the matter. But the choice that we have is what we will do with our afflictions. Will we labor in vain like Faustus? Will we seek the help of various gods other than the true God? Will we seek idols like entertainment, substances, or more base passions as a way to distract ourselves from pain? Will we give into despair and despondency, and lose all hope? Will we labor like Matthidia with our hands, but really only getting by in this life? Or will we, like Saint Clement seek to know our Lord Jesus Christ and to serve Him? Will we be like the woman in the gospel this morning who continued in faithfulness to attend the synagogue despite her infirmity?
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that if you are properly faithful to the Lord that you will have a happily ever after ending like these stories seem to provide, but if we seek the Lord in all of our infirmities, if we don’t allow ourselves to be distracted from our prayers and spiritual disciplines, we will draw closer and closer to Him, so that regardless of our earthly end, we will receive a heavenly reward. When we are sick, or grieving, or worried about this life and those whom we love, it is easy to set aside the labor of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, or spiritual reading and pick up the vain labors which lead us to perdition. Don’t give in to this temptation, but seek to keep Christ at the center of all you do and let His providence lead you where He will for the salvation of your soul.
Luke 12:16-21
The Gospel parable of the rich man and his barns gives us an example of good sound advice for those who live according to the wisdom of the world. He harvested a bumper crop of grain and when his silos were full he still had grain left over. Rather than let that grain go to waste or give it away, he decided instead to build more storage so that he could keep the benefit of his bountiful harvest. This is good sound advice according to the wisdom of the world. However, the wisdom of the world is limited to this world and doesn’t account for the spiritual world. And as this rich man discovered, the wisdom of the spiritual world is not the same as this world’s wisdom. In fact, as the Apostle tells us the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. And so it was that on the very night the rich man had secured all his grain in barns, he left this life and entered into the next life.
In the life after death, we take nothing physical from this world with us – only the spiritual things that we have gained in this life follow us through the grave. We have each been given a multitude of worldly opportunities in this life to change that which is perishable into the wealth that will endure throughout eternity. However, we can take what is given us and use it only for worldly purposes which are worthless in eternity. The rich man in the parable took what God gave him (a bountiful harvest) and rather than use it according to heavenly wisdom, that is to acquire heavenly wealth through charity, almsgiving, hospitality and so on, he chose instead to put his hope in worldly security – barns full of grain for the future. But the barns full of grain were worthless in the life to which he was destined and so he appears before the throne of God not only with nothing to offer, but he appears with a report of what he was given and how he misused it. Not only was his worldly wealth worthless, but it was in fact a testimony against him – a great debt which he was unable to pay.
The holy martyr Plato, whose memory we keep today, lived in a time when the emperor demanded that everyone worship the false gods of Rome and that those who refused to do so would be cruelly executed. Plato was a young man born to Christian parents and he was raised in piety. He was very intelligent and well versed in the wisdom of the philosophers and therefore eloquently spoke about the Christian faith and its superiority over the pagan gods and philosophers. For this reason he was brought before the governor as a criminal for he refused to worship the pagan gods.
The governor questioned him concerning his identity and faith, and then warned Plato of the torments and death that awaited those who confessed Christ and refused to worship the pagan gods. He then said: “Choose for yourself, Plato, what is better: to remain alive or to die a wretched death? … As a friend, I advise you not to choose death but life.”
Plato replied, “It is good counsel you give me. I do flee eternal death and seek everlasting life!
The governor angrily replied, “Tell me, how many sorts of death are there?”
Plato explained, “There is a death which is temporal and a death that is eternal, as there is a life which is fleeting and another without end.”
Upon hearing this the governor began to subject the martyr to tortures which he hoped would force the martyr to renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to the idols. But all this was to no avail for Plato was acting according to the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of the world. He had been given this temporal life by God and now he was offering that life back to God in such a manner as to gain heavenly riches and eternal life in exchange. After many days of torture, imprisonment and interrogation, the Governor in an attempt to flatter him, said to Plato, “If you were not so stubborn and unyielding, I would liken you to the most wise Plato, the prince of philosophers, whose teachings are truly divine.”
The martyr Plato responded to this attempt saying, “Although I bear the same name as that Plato, I do not accept his teachings. A common name does not unite those who hold differing beliefs. Except for our names I am not like your Plato in any way nor is he like me. The philosophy that I study and teach is Christ’s but the pagan teacher Plato was a teacher of the philosophy that is foolishness before God, of which it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nought the understanding of the prudent.’ Plato’s teachings, which you call divine, are nothing but lying fables, words craftily composed to lead astray the minds of the simple.”
Unable to answer the wisdom of the martyr, the governor ordered him imprisoned without food and finally beheaded. For his steadfast confession of Christ, the martyr exchanged his fleeting life and temporal possessions for eternal life, a martyr’s crown and spiritual wealth.
Consider now these two opposite examples – the rich man and the martyr – who give us the same divine truth from the opposite ends. That divine truth is that although we live temporarily in this mortal and corruptible world, we are destined for eternal life and what we do in this life affects how we will live in the next life. This awareness of the life to come and of our place in that eternal kingdom must always be before our awareness. This is something of which we dare not lose sight. It is easy and common for us to evaluate and order our lives according to the wisdom of the world – to make sure that we are secure, that we are safe, that we are getting the things that we think we deserve or to which we think we are entitled. But this wisdom, this way of life, is foolishness when viewed in the context of eternity. Instead of striving for temporal wealth, we should labor for eternal wealth; instead of security and safety in this life we should work to establish our place in the next life. Rather than see ourselves as citizens of this world, we should regard ourselves as citizens of the kingdom of heaven and mere travelers or pilgrims in this life. Rather than seeing this life as an end unto itself, we need to regard it as simply the preparation for the next life. If we would wish to live according to the will of God and to become wealthy prominent citizens in the kingdom of heaven then we must always have this eternal perspective in front of us. We must make our decisions and order our lives in such a way that is spiritually profitable.
St Seraphim also speaks of living according to this divine perspective, but not simply in a passive sense, but actively working to acquire the most spiritual profit possible: “Now I will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come of a merchant family in Kursk. So when I was not yet in the Monastery we used to trade with the goods which brought us the greatest profit. Act like that, my son. And just as in business the main point is not merely to trade, but to get as much profit as possible, so in the business of the Christian life the main point is not merely to pray or to do some other good deed … but in deriving from them the utmost profit, that is in acquiring the most abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
Therefore my brothers and sisters let us not be like the rich man and misuse our lives and possessions by acting according to worldly concerns, rather let us take the view of the martyr Plato and exchange even our very lives for eternal life and riches. Let us take the advice of St Seraphim and trade wisely, seeking not just a little grace, but to acquire the most abundant gifts of grace by our labors and lay up treasure in heaven while still on earth. Let us live in such a way that when we stand before the throne of God we will stand not as penniless debtors, but as good and faithful servants who have wisely used what our Lord has given us.
This morning, Our Lord tells a parable as an answer to the question, "And who is my neighbor?" In this parable, a man is traveling from Jerusalem and falls among thieves who beat him leaving him half dead – that is, dying from his wounds. In this state we hear about three different people who happen upon the man.
The first is a priest. The gospel tells us that he came down that road “by chance.” The priest is not on a mission to rescue the man, but by coming by chance upon this man, he is given the opportunity to help. But we are told that when the priest saw him, he passed by on the other side.
In the book of Leviticus, we read this about those given the priestly office, “They shall not be defiled by the dead among their people, except for their nearest relatives: their father, mother, sons, daughters, brother, and virgin sister near to him and having no husband; for these he may be defiled. Otherwise, he shall not be unexpectedly defiled and profaned among his people.” In light of this, perhaps he was just being a good priest, he did not stop and unexpectedly defile himself for someone who was not close to him. He even passed by on the other side, making sure that he did not get too close to death. He was following the rules that were set down for him for the sake of the people on behalf of whom he ministered in the temple.
The second person to show up is a Levite. The Levites were not priests, but performed ceremonial tasks around the temple. Though they are not held to the same rule given to the priests, they are given the same command that all the people of Israel were given, “He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.” This Levite arrives and looks at the man left half dead. He doesn’t just see the man, he looks. He looks, and then he decides to pass by on the other side.
Again, we can assume what he might have thought. He could have been defiled by contact with a dead body, and unable to perform his duties for a whole week. It is possible that he was trying to be a good Levite by keeping his distance from a stranger who was either dead or dying.
But we don’t call them the Good Priest and the Good Levite. Instead we reserve the adjective “Good” for the Samaritan who comes along next. The Samaritans were a despised group of people. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, she was shocked that He would even speak to her. But this Samaritan, seeing the man who had been left half dead has compassion on him. Instead of passing by on the other side, the gospel tells us that he went to him. He went to the man who might be dead, and he did things for him. He bandaged his wounds, he poured oil to soothe and wine to disinfect, he put him on his animal, and took him to an inn, and took care of him, and left him in the care of the innkeeper whom he promised to repay.
He had every reason to keep walking, to keep his distance, but he didn’t because of compassion. In the Church, the most common interpretation of this parable is that the Good Samaritan is Christ. He comes to us when we are half-dead (alive in body but dead in our sins), having already been neglected by the ministers of the Old Covenant. He heals our wounds sacramentally (oil and wine), bears our broken bodies to the inn of the Church and promises to pay those who minister to us there when He comes again.
This is what makes the Samaritan “good” He acts as God acts toward us. Unlike the priest and the Levite who are worried about the effects of death on them, Christ comes to the dead and makes them clean, makes them whole, and gives them life.
We should understand that this too is how we ought to live as Christians, as those made in the image of God and seeking to live in likeness to Him, as those who have been given life. We bring life and salvation to those who are dying in their sins.
Notice that this is not the same as the worldly interpretation of this parable. We are not being called to simply be nice people, or to help others. We are being called to have compassion as our Compassionate Lord has on us, to draw near to them as He drew near to us in His Incarnation, to administer healing to them as He has healed us, and to commend them to the care of the Church, as He did with us.
And it all begins with seeing someone and having compassion. It means that we are moved by seeing the suffering of others to act on their behalf. In the epistle of Saint James, we read, “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Today we remember Saint Martin the Merciful, who while still a catechumen, saw a young man cold and shivering. Having already given everything else away as alms, he took his sword and cut his cloak in half, giving half of it to the man. That night he saw Christ in a dream dressed in his cloak. Shortly thereafter, Saint Martin was robed in the garment of salvation in Holy Baptism.
We are not just called to witness the suffering of others, or even just to pray for them, but we are to be the means by which they will find healing. But to do that we most often have to put ourselves into their difficult circumstances.
We give up our food and drink and clothing to those who are in need, even if it means we are also in need. We know that God will provide for all our needs, so we lose nothing by helping others. We take in the stranger and visit the prisoner even knowing that they might cause us harm, and we visit the sick even if it might make us sick. We do these things because we see Christ in the suffering person and we are moved to care for them. We can do none of these things if we don’t draw near to them.
We like to be socially-conscious from afar. We like to give to appropriate charities, especially at this time of year. We like to help people without getting too close to them. We connect to others through digital means instead of in person. But you can’t love the idea of people, you love persons. And when you love you go to them. When I heard that my father was dying, I went to him. Across 2000 miles, I went to him, because love wouldn’t let me stay away. Surely we can even cross the street for someone.
We are all well aware that we are entering into the Christmas Season. This week we will begin the Nativity Fast. We will prepare ourselves for the birth of our Lord in the flesh. Our Lord became man for the sake of us men and for our salvation, and He desires not the death of a sinner but that he should turn and live. This Lord loves the person who is suffering. Even if you don’t know the suffering person you see before you, if you love the Lord, and know that He loves them enough to become man, you will allow yourself to be moved by that love.
The Christian life is about being transformed ever more deeply into the likeness of Christ. We are given the opportunity to be like Him. To have compassion and go to those who are half-dead; to bandage their wounds, to introduce them to the sacramental way of living in the Church, and to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to welcome the stranger, to visit the sick and imprisoned. These are the things that Christ came to do, and they are also the place where we find Him and can minister to Him. Have compassion and go to them that you might find Him.
Luke 8:41-56 & Gal 5:22-6:2
The woman in the crowd touched Jesus and was healed. The young girl who had died was touched by Jesus and she was alive. Consider the power of a touch. The sacraments, when we receive them all involve a “touch” of some kind. The priest puts his hands on the one to be baptized and immerses him in water and he is born anew; the newly baptized is again touched by the brush saturated with the Holy Chrism and is sealed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. A repentant sinner is touched by the hand of the priest in confession and is cleansed of his sin; we receive the Holy Mysteries from the hand of the priest and we are touched by our Lord Himself as we partake of His Body and His Blood. A sick person is touched by the anointing; the couple to be married are touched by the rings, the crowns and the triple blessing from the hand of the priest and are made one. The one to be ordained is touched by the hands of the bishop imparting grace to him. Even the smaller “everyday” blessings involve touch as the priest gives the blessing and then we take his hand and kiss it. When a person has died, they are washed by the hands of the pious faithful and clothed by the same hands and at the funeral we all approach the body of our departed loved one and give them the last kiss before the casket is closed and lowered into the grave.
Touch is everywhere in our spiritual life. The reason for this is that we are not just creatures of immaterial soul and spirit, but we are composite creatures consisting of both a soul and a body. Both the soul and the body must be “touched” in order for the grace of God to have an effect. When Jesus was walking along the road and He stopped saying “Who touched me?” the apostles were puzzled that he would say such a thing for the crowd was great and people were brushing against Him and touching Him from every side – but there was only one touch that healed. The woman touched Jesus not only with her hand, but with her heart as well. She acted in faith, believing that if she just touched the hem of His garment she would be healed. Now if she had only held her belief, but not reached out her hand to touch, she would not have been healed. Likewise all those who touched Jesus only physically and without the touch of faith were unaffected by that touch. Both the body and the soul had to act in concert for the grace of God to have its effect.
This touch is not only important when we approach our Lord, but it is also important between one another. The grace of God can be transmitted to another person by our prayer and the touch of the hand such as we see with the blessing of the priest, but also with the comforting touch for one who is suffering or in sorrow. Make no mistake, this very “human” touch can also carry the grace of God when it is empowered by our prayers. When we touch someone with such a prayer, we offer to them some of the strength that God has given us and at the same time we take on some of their burden. This coincides with the words of the Apostle that we heard today to “Bear one another’s burdens”. Our Lord does not leave us alone to work out our salvation – rather He calls us to work out our salvation together, bearing one another’s burdens. This shows us the vital importance to pray for one another, to have compassion on one another and to offer to one another such physical comfort as we are able (and as is appropriate).
In the life of St Ioanikkios the Great, whose memory we celebrate today, there is given to a clear example of the power of a touch – not only physically, but spiritually. St Ioanikkios was a man of great ascetic labors – he had no real home and lived in many different places, seeking that place where he could leave behind all earthly cares and stand undistracted in the presence of God. As a youth he was a shepherd and used to take his flock out into the hills and each day would seal the flock on all sides with the sign of the cross and go to a secluded place to pray. When he returned to the flock, the power of the cross had kept them from wandering and protected them from predators. As a young man, he was taken into the military and there proved himself to be a brave and courageous warrior. But heeding the call of our Lord, he left all that behind to take on the monastic and ascetic life. His spiritual life was so great that he was endowed by our Lord with many gifts of miracles and healing as well as great wisdom and compassion. One day as he was passing by a woman’s monastery, he was called to stop by two nuns, a mother and daughter. The mother pled with the saint to pray for her daughter who had been assailed by a great storm of lustful passion – so much so that she was tempted to leave the monastery and take a husband to satisfy her passions. St Ioanikkios spoke to the girl and instructed her to place her hand upon his shoulder. On his part he prayed fervently to our Lord in his heart that the passion of lust when so tormented the young nun would be taken from her and placed on his own shoulder, that he might bear this burden for her. Immediately she was calmed and no longer tempted by lust and returned peacefully to the monastery. The saint continued on his way and suddenly experienced a conflagration of fiery lust within his members. Here was the burden of the young girl he had taken upon himself. So great was this passionate fire that he began to fear that it might overcome him and enter into his own being, thus afflicting him on a baser level. The saint considered his options and thought that it would be better to die than to fall prey to this sin. He reached out his hand to provoke a serpent that it might bite him and so relieve him of this warfare, but as soon as he touched the snake, it died and immediately he was freed from the passion. Just as when our Lord exiled the demons into the herd of swine and they could not bear it and so ran off the cliff into the sea, so also the snake could not bear the passionate torment and at the touch of the saint immediately died as the passion passed to it.
See this power of touch. Even the passions can move from person to person by a touch. Thus when we touch someone else, we must beware of our own hearts that they are filled with prayer and the grace of God rather than the fire of passion (whether lust, anger, avarice or some other passion). It behooves us to keep a watch on our hearts and to keep our hearts pure as we interact with others, lest we even unintentionally afflict them with our own passions rather than being the instrument of God’s grace.
Let us therefore, brothers and sisters, have compassion on one another. Let us bear one another’s burdens. Let us in all innocence and purity of heart reach out to our neighbor and offer him the blessing of the Lord and taking from him a share of his struggle that we might labor together in our salvation. Reach out to our Lord and receive His healing and life-giving touch in the sacraments and in the blessings and mercies of the Church. In this way we receive His grace and are healed and brought into His Kingdom.
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