God or Mammon?

A homily for the third Sunday after Pentecost

The lamp of the body is the eye: if, then, your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is wicked, your whole body will be dark (Mt 6:22-23)

The Lord’s words are a true lamp for us on the path of life; and so are the words of the Gospel honored today; only we must reflect on them more attentively. Let us reflect. The lamp of the body is the eye, says the Lord—that is, the eye is a lamp for the body. Why is it not said ‘eyes’ but ‘eye’? Because here the Lord means not the bodily eyes but the spiritual eye, or our heart, which governs even the bodily eyes, and which sees objects not doubly through its two eyes but singly. And so, by the eye is meant the heart, in which conscience is planted—the inner law that tells us what is good and what is evil; that is why it says ‘eye,’ not ‘eyes.’ By the body, on the other hand, is meant our whole inner life—our thoughts, desires, intentions, all the works we do throughout our earthly life. Consequently, the meaning of the Savior’s words is this: the heart, or the conscience, is a lamp for a person on the path of his life, in all his thoughts, desires, intentions, words, and all his works. Further, the Lord says: so, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be light—that is, if your heart and your conscience are sound and pure, then all your thoughts, your desires, your deeds, intentions, and undertakings will be light, right, and pure; but if your eye, your conscience, is wicked, then your whole body will be dark—that is, all your thoughts, desires, intentions, and undertakings, your whole life and all your works will be dark, unrighteous, wicked. And so, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! If your heart, which the Lord gave you instead of a lamp, has through your own negligence itself become darkness, then what will your whole life be like, and all your works? Does not this happen so in life? Do we not see constant examples of it? Let us take an example from life. Take a man with a simple heart, an upright conscience, a straightforward view of life, a Gospel view of life, and a man with a wicked heart or a wicked conscience, given over to attachment to the world and to the flesh. All the actions of the first are marked by justice, diligence, uprightness of character, and goodwill toward his neighbor. On the actions of the second lies the stamp of unrighteousness, deceit, hypocrisy, cunning, and craftiness.

The first is content with very little and is not devoured by a thirst for much: for example, he does not desire a luxurious table, many fancy and costly garments, nor a thirst for wealth, for a spacious and richly furnished dwelling, and so on. He has his daily bread and a simple broth; he has several changes of clean and decent clothing; he has a steady income, however modest it may be—a salary, or money earned by labor, by honest trade, by industry, by handiwork; he has a healthy dwelling, though not a spacious one, without rich furnishings: he is content, and he thanks God. He does not wish for anything more, because he considers it superfluous; and if he sees that he has some small surplus, he would rather share it with his neighbors in need than spend it on any of his own whims.

But look at the life of another man, whose heart is crooked and whose conscience is crooked and deceitful. He is content with nothing: to him the table is not a table, the clothing is not clothing, the lodging is not lodging, the furniture is not furniture; with his cup full, he wants it to be fuller still; what he has is too little for him—he must seize what belongs to another, even at the cost of wronging his neighbor; for him this food is no good—there must be something better; or his daily bread and simple broth are too little for him—he wants wine, though he has no need of it whatever; and not merely a little—that would not be so bad—but some men need a great deal, so as to drink themselves drunk; this clothing is no good, it has gone out of fashion—there must be something better; this lodging is not spacious or convenient enough—it must be roomier; this furniture is no good—there must be new furniture; these earnings, this salary, these receipts are too little—there must be more; and hardly anything ever satisfies him: everything he has seems fine, he has enough of everything—the man is full and overfull, dressed luxuriously and fastidiously, he has abundance in plenty—and yet he is discontent with it all. Another man, with his means of livelihood—indeed, even with smaller ones—has enough for himself and still has something to spare for his needy neighbor, for food and for clothing; but for this man there is too little even for himself, and nothing at all for others. Why is this? Because his heart is crooked, darkened, foolish, insatiable, passionate. And why is it such? Because he does not know the commandments of the Lord, or does not want to know them, and is not guided by the light of the Gospel of Christ. Because he does the will of his own blind, passionate flesh and of his own imaginings.

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and neglect the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. What two masters are meant here, whom it is impossible to serve at one and the same time? One is the Lord and God; the other is riches, or our sin-loving flesh, in which the devil is at work, striving to nail it fast to the world. It is plainly impossible to labor at once for God and for sin-loving flesh: precisely because God demands of us holiness, the unwavering and exact fulfillment of His will, while the flesh ceaselessly incites us to sin—to gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, envy, enmity, greed and love of money, to laziness and the like. How can service to God and service to the flesh be reconciled? Plainly it cannot: the word of God says outright that those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires[1] — and they by no means serve the much-sinning flesh, do not please it. Do not make provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts[2], says the holy Apostle Paul. And it is always thus: whoever pleases his own flesh neglects the pleasing of God, the salvation of his own soul, his own amendment, a life of virtue; he does not set his heart right, does not strive in spirit toward the heavenly homeland, but is all of him, as it were, nailed fast to the earth, to earthly pleasures. Whoever loves his much-sinning flesh does not love God; God’s commandments seem burdensome to him; he does not love his neighbor: he will not look after his neighbor’s salvation, because he does not look after his own; he will not help him in his need, because he loves himself too dearly and would sooner indulge his own whims than devote his possessions to his neighbor’s need. Therefore I say to you, the Lord goes on to say, do not be anxious for your soul, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor for your body, what you will put on. Is not the soul more than food, and the body than clothing? An unfitting, unwise, overstrained anxiety about food, drink and clothing does great harm to the Christian life: this very thing is what the Lord called above serving mammon.

This wrong-headed concern of ours about food, drink, and clothing turns, so to speak, our whole life upside down: instead of caring chiefly for the soul, for its cleansing, correction, and sanctification—in a word, for its salvation—we concern ourselves day after day with gratifying our greedy belly and with what we shall dress ourselves in, while the soul—an immortal being created in the image and likeness of God, perishing alive in sins—we leave neglected, without correction, or else day after day we go on adding sins to sins; we sate the body and even glut it, while the soul is left to starve: the body we adorn, and the soul we disfigure; we give life to the body, and we kill the soul. That is why the Lord, exposing this madness of ours, says: Is not the soul more than food, and the body than clothing? If the soul is evidently greater than food, then why do you leave the soul without care, preoccupied with what is worthless, as food and drink are? For food is for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will destroy both the one and the other[3]. Or again, is not the body more than clothing? If the Lord has given you the greater, that is, the body, will He not take care to give the lesser? Will He not look after its covering, and will He not give you the means to cover its nakedness, just as He covered the nakedness of Eve and of Adam?

Are you not concerning yourselves with what is empty, leaving aside what is most needful of all, the one truly needful thing?

Look at the birds of the heavens: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into storehouses; and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not far better than they? The Lord points us to the birds, we who are of little faith, in order to show us the unsleeping, unceasing providence of the heavenly Father over all the earthly creatures—a providence that from the beginning of the world has never ceased and does not cease to preserve and feed every creature, and especially the crown of all creatures, man, created in the image and likeness of God—and in order that, by the example of birds always well fed although they do not sow or reap their bread, we might be convinced to rely with certainty on the providence of God. Of course, these words of the Lord do not teach us to sit with folded hands and merely hope in God; they teach us to exercise ourselves in blessed labors, and amid our labors to hope for God’s blessing on success in our undertakings, for the granting of everything needful. Further, the Lord says: and which of you, by being anxious, can add to his stature even a single cubit? Does not everything depend on God? If our body, in all its functions—both its nourishment and its growth—depends on God, as the work of His hands, of His wisdom, His goodness, His omnipotence, then is not our food likewise in His keeping? Is it not He who gives the food for our growth and strengthening? Why, then, do we consider food as it were alien to His providence? O, in truth His providence feeds not only us, but every worm and every insect as well! And why are you anxious about clothing? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither labor nor spin; yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like any one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow will be thrown into the oven, how much more you, you of little faith!

With the words about clothing, why are you anxious? the Lord teaches us not to have an attachment to clothing, just as He earlier spoke of our not having an attachment to food and drink. It is impossible to take no care at all about clothing: we must take care that our clothing is decent and clean; and those for whom it is fitting must occupy themselves with spinning, weaving, and sewing. The all-pure Virgin Mary herself wove and sewed with her most pure hands, as the Savior’s tunic shows, which was woven by her virginal hands. But ceaseless cares about finery, which make our heads whirl, are utterly contrary to the Gospel spirit: they make us vain and petty, and in many they give rise to unchastity and pride. If beautiful clothing were as necessary to us as its flower is to some blade of grass, then our heavenly Father would not have failed to dress us a thousand times more beautifully than roses and lilies or peacocks; but it is known that our clothing is a temporary covering, or a temporary bandage over a wound: for clothing came into being as a consequence of sin, when people became aware of their own nakedness; and is it worth adorning the bandages on a wound? Should we not rather be concerned with how to heal the wound as quickly as possible, that is, with how to be cleansed of our sins the sooner? Is it reasonable to sew costly bandages over these sinful wounds, and then even to boast of the bandages, as of something praiseworthy? Would not the stench of sin be all the greater on that account? Let us call to mind that in Baptism we all received the garment of incorruption, the garment of Christ’s righteousness. This garment of righteousness, then, is what we shall be concerned for; this garment we shall keep; let it be our adornment. If we keep it, then in the age to come the Lord will clothe us in the garment of glory; He will clothe us with eternal light, as He Himself wraps Himself in light as with a robe.

So then, I will conclude my talk with the Savior’s own words: do not be anxious and do not say: what are we to eat, or what are we to drink? or, with what are we to be clothed? for it is these very things that pagans seek, and because your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Do you hear? By the Lord’s word, all those who are concerned about just this—what to eat and to drink, or with what to be clothed—are pagans, and not Christians; and about the works of God, and about the fulfilling of His commandments, they never so much as think. Seek then first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you as well. Every householder, every master, feeds and gives drink to his servants and clothes them: how much more, then, will the Lord God both feed and clothe us, if we are His servants. If He feeds and clothes those who do not serve Him, who do not know Him, how much more will He not forget those who serve Him. Amen.