Toil and Trouble
The spiritual life, while transcendently rewarding, does not consist solely of exalted mental, spiritual, and emotional states. Toil, sorrow, and struggle are unavoidable and necessary tools for our salvation. The consequences of sin, our own and others, have turned the world into a mess of pain and suffering that we cannot avoid. After all, the path of the cross demonstrated that true love and life with God entails the giving of our entire being as a loving sacrifice. We die to selfishness and live to God, and this is true spirituality. Consequently, the giving of one’s entire being entails the physical part of our being.
Our bodies are not what they will be when they are transformed in the resurrection, but even then, they will not be immaterial. The physical world was created good by God, and He came to dwell with us in it precisely because He fully intends for it to be redeemed along with us for a life of eternal blessedness. What this means now, on this side of eternity, is that we must expend physical effort in our spiritual life. We attend physical churches, make the sign of the cross, venerate icons and relics, make prostrations and bows, sing, chant, pray, make processions with icons, drink holy water, consume the Body and Blood of God in the Eucharist, and various other physical actions that are not strictly liturgical but entail our giving of love to God and neighbor.
As St. James the Just so pointedly taught in his Epistle: “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.” A faithful, spiritual life requires physical actions. So we have to examine ourselves: how much time are we spending engaged in praying while also physically engaged, almsgiving, and using our daily efforts to glorify God? Do we spend at least as much time doing this as we do on reading about our faith, or listening to podcasts, or watching videos, or chatting about it online?
When we fall into sin, do we ever engage in physical acts of penance to help attract the grace of God to aid in our healing and transformation away from sin? Do we amend our wrongs by countering our vices with virtues? It is not enough to feel sorry for our sins, to have correct ideas about God, or attach the right titles and associations to ourselves that make us look Christian from the outside. Every part of us, inside and out, spiritual and physical, must be engaged in loving service to God and neighbor if we truly wish to live. Do not neglect the physical toil that this sin-wracked world entails, but deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ through death to eternal life. The time for toil will pass, but that time is not yet. First we must run the race of this life with endurance to the very end, with a firm faith in Christ to save us. Our life in Christ is not a mental mirage, but an adventure full of toil, tribulation, and tears. But fear not: He has overcome the world, and He is coming again to make all things new. Make ready.
Glory to God for All Things,
Abbot Tryphon
Wednesday October 30, 2024 / October 17, 2024
19th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Prophet Hosea (Osee) (820 B.C.).
Monk-martyr Andrew of Crete (767).
New Hieromartyr Neophit and Anatolius priests, Martyrs Hyacinth and Callistus (1918).
New Hieromartyr Archbishop Alexander (Shchukin) of Semipalatinsk (1937).
Venerable Anthony, abbot, of Leokhonov (Novgorod) (1611).
Holy Martyrs and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian in Cilicia (4th c.), and their brothers Leontius, Anthimus, and Eutropius.
Translation of the relics (898) of St. Lazarus “Of the Four Days” (in the tomb), bishop of Kition on Cyprus.
“Before Birth and After Birth the Virgin” (1827) and “Deliverer” (1889) Icons of the Mother of God.
Martyr Queen Shushaniki (Susanna) of Georgia (475) (Georgia).
St. Joseph the Wonderworker, Catholicos of Georgia (1770) (Georgia).
Holy Martyr Kozman (Georgia).
Martyrs Ethelred and Ethelbert, princes of Kent (England) (ca. 640) (Celtic & British).
Translation of the relics of St. Ethelreda, abbess of Ely. (Celtic & British).
The Scripture Readings
But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
13
so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;
14
and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15
Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill:
16
The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains;
17
but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
18
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
19
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20
according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.
45
But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.
46
Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.
47
And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him,
48
and said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great.”
49
Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.”
50
But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.”