We Must Change the World by Starting With Ourselves
How easy it is to worship with all piety and correctness while standing in a service within an Orthodox temple, yet make no effort to live Orthodoxy during the rest of our week. If we are abusive towards our spouse, abrasive with a coworker, and short tempered with a neighbor, all the piety and liturgical correctness of our Sunday morning is of no value.
If we cheat on our taxes, steal pens from the office, or refuse to point out an error to a clerk who has failed to ring up an item, we will have reduced our life in Christ to no more than membership in a club. If we walk past a child who is being bullied, without intervening, we have become the bully. If we fail to call the police when we hear a neighbor pleading with an abusive husband, not wanting to get involved, we are a wife beater. If we smile at the racist joke of a coworker, we are just as guilty of racism as he.
Being a Christian is far more than adherence to a set of doctrines, or the adaptation of liturgical forms of worship and piety. To be a follower of Christ is not like joining the Elks Club, where paying your dues and attending meetings makes you a member. Taking the name of the Saviour for ourselves, and calling ourselves Christian, must mean that we imitate the Saviour’s life. It must mean that others see Christ in us, each and every hour of our day.
We must be the neighborhood peacemaker, the one who is quick to forgive when wronged, the person who is always looking for ways of being in service to others. If we truly wish to be called a Christian, we must put aside hypocrisy in all its forms, and live Christ.
We must work towards changing the world by beginning with ourselves. Saint Seraphim of Sarov told us that if we acquire peace in our heart, we will save a thousand around us. Justice and peace does not come with revolution, but comes when the hearts of men and women are transformed by the Holy Spirit, and this change can only begin, when we put aside all hypocrisy, and replace it with genuine, heartfelt commitment to Jesus Christ, living in imitation of the Saviour.
“Correct faith does not benefit anything, when life is corrupted.”
St. John Chrysostom
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: An incredible view from the Dockton Marina, a short walk from the monastery.
Saturday February 24, 2024 / February 11, 2024
38th Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Hieromartyr Blaise, bishop of Sebaste (316).
St. Vsevolod (in holy baptism Gabriel), prince and wonderworker of Pskov (1138).
Venerable Demetrius, monk of Priluki (Vologda) (1392).
Venerable Cassian the Barefoot (in the world ‘Kosmas’), ascetic of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery (1532)
St. Theodora, wife of Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast (867).
St. Gobnait, abbess of Ballyvourney, Cork (Ireland) (7th c.) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Caedmon of Whitby, monk (680) (Celtic & British).
Venerable George (Kratovac) the Greatmartyr of Serbia (Greek).
Hieromartyr Lucius of Adrianopolis in Thrace (348).
St. Benedict of Aniane (821) (Gaul).
The Scripture Readings
2 Timothy 2:11-19
11 This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
Approved and Disapproved Workers
14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
Luke 18:2-8
2 saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”
6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”