The Poor

The saints serve as our guides in serving the poor

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 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 Christians. 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 told up the saints as exemplary people whose lives are worthy of emulating. The show us the way to live out the Gospels, and point, by their lives, the Way of Christ.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photo: I’m returning to the monastery while driving north along the Oregon coast.

Wednesday July 8, 2020 / June 25, 2020
5th Week after Pentecost. Tone three.
Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Food with Oil
Virgin-martyr Febronia of Nisibis (304).
Venerable Nikon the Confessor of Optina (1931).
New Hieromartyrs Nicholas and Basil priests (1918).
New Hieromartyr Basil priest (1940).
Prince Peter (1228) and Princess Febronia (tonsured David and Euphrosyne), wonderworkers of Murom.
Venerable Dalmatus, abbot and founder of the Dormition Monastery in Siberia (1697)..
Venerables Leonis, Libye, and Eutropia of Syria.
Venerable Symeon of Sinai (5th c.).
Venerables Dionysius and Dometius (1380) of the Monastery of the Forerunner (Dionysiou), Mt. Athos (Greek).
New Martyr Procopius of Varna and Mt. Athos, who suffered at Smyrna (1810) (Greek).
New Martyr George of Attalia (1823) (Greek).
Martyr Gallicianus the Patrician in Egypt (362).
St. Adelbert, archdeacon (740) (Neth.).
St. Theoleptus, metropolitan of Philadelphia (1322).
St. Moluac of Lismore (592) (Celtic & British).

The Scripture Readings

Romans 15:7-16

Glorify God Together

7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. 8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written:

“For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles,
And sing to Your name.”

10 And again he says:

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”

11 And again:

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles!
Laud Him, all you peoples!”

12 And again, Isaiah says:

“There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”

13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

From Jerusalem to Illyricum

14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. 15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, 16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 12:38-45

The Scribes and Pharisees Ask for a Sign

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

An Unclean Spirit Returns

43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there;and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”