The Church Must Encourage Her Children
It deeply saddens me when I see some in the Church taking the stand that the Church must be the enforcer of God’s law. In this view the Church becomes like some arm of the military, dishing out punishment, or excluding some of her children as ill fit for anything but condemnation.
I remember a fellow high school teacher, some thirty-six years ago, who had a good list and a bad list. The good list consisted of students he liked, the ones who consistently got their homework in on time, and whose grades were above average. Then there was the bad list. These were the students who were academically challenged, and who more often than not had a very low self image. When this teacher wrote an A+ on an exam, it was written with a preciseness and elegance that bespoke of his admiration for this student. Yet when he wrote a D+ or an F, you could read the anger in his style.
Students would walk out of his class with their spirits soaring, or with the knowledge that they were a total failure, even worthless, in this teacher’s eyes. Many of these students would walk into my classroom the following period, and I could tell their grades from the look on their faces, and it would take considerable effort on my part to lift the spirits of the “bad” student.
An older, more experienced teacher once shared with me her approach to grading, and I decided to follow her grading plan. If there were twenty questions on a test, and the student got only four correct answers, I wrote 4+, with a little smiling star next to the number. I’d tell the student that four correct answers was a good start, and the grades always went up from there!
As the hospital for the soul, the Church should view everyone who walks through the narthex in the same light. Some people are, for whatever reason, living the Gospel, and willing to commit one hundred percent to their life in Christ. They are always early for services, make good confessions, receive the Holy Mysteries frequently, and volunteer for whatever task is set before them. Others struggle with the Christian life, and are barely identifiable as belonging to Christ. These people are stuck in patterns of living not in concert with the teachings of the Gospel. Yet both sets of people are in need of the same healing that comes in an encounter with the Living God.
If the Church loves only those who are in the first list, she will have failed, for those in the second list are in need of more attention and love than the first list. It is like the mother who once told me she loved her youngest son the most, not because he was smart, or polite, or obedient, or handsome, like her other two sons, but because her youngest son was troubled, homely, disobedient, and angry. The youngest son needed the encouragement of his mother, and needed his mother’s love more than the others. This is why I have always loved the image of the Church as being our mother.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Monday June 26, 2023 / June 13, 2023
4th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Martyr Aquilina of Byblos in Lebanon (293).
St. Triphyllius, bishop of Leucosia (Nicosia) in Cyprus (370).
St. Alexandra, foundress of Diveyevo Convent (1789).
New Hieromartyr Alexis priest (1918).
New Hieromartyr Demetrius priest (1940).
Virgin-Martyr Pelagea (1944).
Venerable Andronicus (1395), disciple of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, and St. Sabbas (1410), abbots of Moscow.
Martyr Antonina of Nicaea (284-305).
Venerable Anna (826), and her son St. John of Constantinople (9th c.).
St. Antipater, bishop of Bostra in Arabia (458).
Finding of the relics of Martyr Nicholas the Deacon of Lesbos (Greek).
St. Eulogius, patriarch of Antioch (Greek).
Martyr Diodorus of Emesus who was crucified (Greek).
St. Anthimus, Metropolitan of Wallachia (1716) (Georgia).
The Scripture Readings
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea:
“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26 “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
29 And as Isaiah said before:
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Present Condition of Israel
30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Matthew 11:2-15
2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 Theblind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he of whom it is written:
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!