The Church’s Witness to the Problem of Poverty
In many parts of the American countryside one can find the remnants of poorhouses (sometimes called workhouses), institutions run by local county or state governments as a means of dealing with the issue of the unemployed poor and homeless. These poorhouses were often located in rural farming communities, and could resemble rather bleak mental hospitals or prisons. Those residing in these poorhouses were seen as dishonorable, lacking moral character, and devoid of any industriousness. They were poor because they were lazy.
These poorhouses resembled reformatories precisely because poverty was seen as the result of a total lack of initiative on the part of the poor. Those who were forced to live in these institutions, either alone, or as families, were subjected to a penal labor regime of manual labor, sometimes even subjected to physical punishment. More often than not, poorhouses shared space with prison farms, and other penal or charitable public institutions, housing paupers (mainly elderly and disabled people) at public expense. These institutions were common in the United States beginning in the middle of the 19th century and declined in use after the introduction of Social Security in 1935.
Most poorhouses operated working farms that produced at least some of the produce, grain, and livestock they consumed. Residents were expected to provide labor to the extent that their health would allow, both in the fields and in providing housekeeping and care for other residents. Rules were strict and accommodations minimal. Hardly the place one would want their elderly relatives to be forced to reside, or a place for our nation’s children to be raised. Yet, given the bleak statistics of our nations homeless, these poorhouses were at least warm shelters for desperate families, and homeless elderly.
The Church’s Witness to the Problem of Poverty
Our Orthodox Church is very clear in her teaching regarding the poor. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us by His example as the great philanthropos, and we can do nothing less than follow His example. Christ commanded us to love and serve the poor and the hungry. He told us we must care for the sick and suffering, and that we must visit those in prisons, and cloth the naked.
The Church’s liturgical hymns and seasons are filled with the commemoration of saints who were known for their love of the poor. Saint Basil the Great of the third century established Church sponsored hospitals and mental institutions. Saint Nicholas of Myra of Lycia distributed money to those in need. Saint John the Almsgiver was one of the most charitable Patriarchs of the Byzantine Empire. Saint Joseph of Volokhlamsk emphasized the ancient monastic tradition of hospitality and care for the poor, and Saint Elizabeth the Grand Duchess established hospitals for the poor and destitute in Russia. The newly canonized saint, Mother Maria Skobtsova, served soup kitchens and established houses of hospitality in World War II France.
These holy saints provided unique examples to the rest of us of what it means to be Christian. They showed forth the Light of Christ by following His example of love for the poor by giving of their talents, time and money to those in need. Orthodox Christians hold up the saints as exemplary people whose lives are worthy of emulating. They show us the way to live out the Gospels, and point, by their lives, the Way of Christ.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Saturday September 3, 2016 / August 21, 2016
11th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Afterfeast of the Dormition.
Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy (44).
Martyr Bassa of Edessa and her sons Theogonius, Agapius, and Pistus (4th c.).
Venerable Abramius, archimandrite, wonderworker of Smolensk (1220).
St. Martha, schemanun of Diveyevo (1829).
New Hieromartyr Alexander priest (1918).
New Hieromartyr Paul priest (1937).
New Martyr Ignatius (1942).
Venerable Abramius the Lover-of-Labor of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
Venerable Theocleta the Wonderworker of Asia Minor (840).
Venerable Cornelius, abbot of Palei Island (Valaam) (1420), and his disciple St. Abramius.
Venerable Ephraim (1238) of Smolensk disiciple of St. Abramius.
St. Avitus, bishop of Clermont (594) (Gaul).
Martyrs Donatus the deacon, Romul the priest, Silvan the deacon, and Venust (Romania).
Venerable Isaiah of Mt. Athos (Greek).
St. Sarmean, Catholicos of Kartli, Georgia (779) (Georgia).
Hieromartyr Raphael of Sisatovac, Serbia (1941) (Serbia).
New Martyr Symeon of Samokovo (1737).
Translation of the relicts (1953) of St. Nectarius (Kephalus), metropolitan of Pentapolis (1920).
St. Hardulph of Breedon.
Scripture Readings
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Gifts at Corinth
4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may beblameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Matthew 19:3-12
3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
Jesus Teaches on Celibacy
11 But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: 12 For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.”