A Word for the 19th Sunday After Pentecost

«Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise» (Lk 6:31).

In today’s Gospel reading the Lord teaches us to act toward all people as we wish them to act toward us—that is, simply, lovingly, sincerely, with a pure heart and in a holy manner, respectfully, indulgently, patiently, with goodwill, freely, and willingly. The Lord gives us a simple and wise rule, one convenient for everyone to keep—for the simple and the learned, for the rich and the poor, for the noble and the humble, for the old and the young. For every one of us has in his soul a measure and a rule, though not always a true one, by which we at once judge whether our neighbors treat us well or not; and if they treat us well, we are calm and content, and our affairs proceed rightly; but if they treat us badly, coldly, unkindly, or contemptuously, with ill will, unwillingly, unjustly, or even with hostility, we are greatly displeased, and sometimes even unsuccessful in our own affairs. This same measure we must keep, but from its good side, toward the other people too, with whom we happen to live and act every day, or merely to meet, to become acquainted, to be together. Act toward everyone as you wish them to act toward you; sincerely respect and love everyone; wish everyone well, from the soul; feel pity for those who sin; sympathize with your neighbor’s misfortune, grief, sorrow, loss, or poverty; use every opportunity to do someone good; rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep; think ill of no one without sufficient cause, but think well of everyone; harbor in your soul no enmity or ill will toward anyone, no envy or malice; do not humiliate or despise anyone in your soul on account of any shortcomings or faults, but cover everyone and everything with love and forbearance; look upon those who sin as upon the weak, as upon the spiritually sick; do not repay evil with evil, but render good for evil—and you will fulfill the commandment of Christ, and will be crowned by Him with the imperishable crown of righteousness and eternal life. It is a great thing, beloved brothers and sisters, to give no place in one’s soul to any evil, not even for a single minute, but ceaselessly to overcome evil with good, and every sin with fitting repentance and prayer; for it is senseless and ruinous to strengthen evil with evil, and, so to speak, to pour oil on the fire and turn a small flame into a blaze. Evil, or any sin, is the greatest calamity, the greatest misfortune of the human race, which must be bitterly regretted and which must be uprooted, as far as possible, by good, by love, by prayer, by admonition, by good works, or by righteous correction, and, as a last resort, by casting the evil person out from our midst. «Put away from yourselves the evil person» (1Cor 5:13).

«If you love those who love you», says the Lord further, in today’s Gospel reading, «what credit is that to you? For even sinners (that is, pagans) love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil» (Lk 6:32-35). We must deeply take to heart these words of the Lord, and lay them upon our hearts so as to keep them. These words are directed straight at each one of us, against our own cunning, selfish, corrupted habits, and convict all of us of self-interested love: we love only those who love us in return—or even, quite often, do not love even them—or we love those who flatter us, or who are partners in our sins, while we harbor enmity and ill will toward those who are honest with us, who reprove or correct us, who will not agree to sin along with us—or who, in fact, do not love us, are cold toward us, or despise and hate us, take revenge on us and do us harm. Such conduct of ours is sin, selfishness, self-love, the making of a god of ourselves, a falling away from God. The law of God must be kept according to the understanding of God, not according to our own, blinded by our passions. The Lord teaches us to overcome our own corrupted heart—that is, to overcome the sin born with us and living within us—to go against ourselves, to swim, so to speak, against the current, to deny ourselves. It is no great thing to do good to, or to love only, those who do good to us: even pagans do this, who do not know the Gospel, who have not been reborn by grace, who do not have the gift of adoption as God’s children—dogs, and not children; but we have the priceless, greatest privilege of being children of God, and of the grace given to us in abundance—that is, the power for every good deed—and from children of God, deeds worthy of children are rightly required. We must be holy, as the Lord our God is holy; we must be merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful. «Be holy in all your conduct» (1Pet 1:15), says the Apostle Peter.

Further, the Lord exposes our own love of gain, saying that we lend to others so as to receive it back, and even with interest, and are unwilling to give without expecting return, even though we know that the person who has borrowed money from us is poor and unable to pay, and even though we have given him only out of our own surplus. This too is the custom of pagans, not of Christians. We count as our treasure and our wealth money, and not God, who is our own inexhaustible treasure, who is our true life, and who can easily enrich us even in the midst of poverty; we count as our treasure not love for our neighbor—for instance, for a debtor, who is often unable to repay his debt only through poverty—not mercy, which makes us like God and brings us into the eternal heavenly dwellings, but again money, and only money. See how our life, our deeds, are, every day and every hour, out of keeping with the teaching of our Lord; everything with us is done inside out, perversely, not in a godly manner, but by cunning, fleshly, worldly reasoning. Let us, then, learn wisdom, to live in a godly manner. «So then, be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is also merciful; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil» (Lk 6:36,35).