An Instruction for the Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost (26)

I say to you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. (Mt 21:43).

Christians who live negligently will not enter into the kingdom of God; but those will enter it who keep the commandments of God.

To whom does this word of God threaten the loss of the kingdom of God? — To Christians who do not live in a Christian manner, who do not bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of God. To whom, instead of these negligent Christians, is the kingdom of heaven promised? — To a nation that bears the fruits of the kingdom of God: and what are the fruits of the kingdom of God? — Living faith in the Lord God, hope in Him and in our future union with Him, and fervent love for God and neighbor. Now let each of you look carefully into yourself, into your own life, and ask your own heart: is there in it a firm faith in the Lord God, hope in Him and in the future life with Him and in Him; does it hold a fervent love for God and neighbor? Do not lie before God or before yourself: this question is a most important one. If you have faith in the Lord God, it will certainly show itself in your life: you will always walk before the eyes of the Lord God, will always hold His commandments in your heart, will strive in every way to keep them, and will be diligent in prayer; if you have hope in God and in union with Him in the life to come, you will, by every means, turn your heart away from attachment to earthly goods—to wealth, to the pleasures of the belly, to fine clothing and various vain adornments and amusements. In sorrows, sicknesses, and various misfortunes you will be patient, not fainthearted; steadfast, not despondent; you will not worry or grumble, whatever happens to you, in the hope that the heavenly Father is with you always; you will not grow slack or lazy in good fortune, nor lose heart in misfortune; you will always keep in view the life to come, which will have no end; if you have love for God and neighbor, you will surely show it in zeal for the glory of God’s name, will strive yourself to glorify it and stir up others to this glorification, and will stop the mouths of those who blaspheme it; you will be diligent in attending the house of God as the place where His glory dwells; you will wish, with all your heart, for everyone’s salvation, as for your own; you will strive to help everyone in their needs, as much as you are able.

But if you have neither faith, nor hope, nor love for God, then you will live only for your own pleasure—merely to eat well, drink, dress or adorn yourself in the latest fashion, build spacious houses, grow as rich as possible by every means, amuse yourself with every conceivable pleasure, pass the time in idle talk—in short, to spend this earthly life in every possible comfort; you will either give no thought at all to the life to come, or, if you do, only rarely, and only in passing, and it will be burdensome for you to think of the life to come while you are content with the present one; you will love not your neighbor, but yourself—your own sinful flesh, and everything that serves to feed, fatten, adorn, and comfort it; you will often be ready to trade away your neighbor for the most trifling thing, especially if you happen to need it: what is my neighbor to me, you will say, when I myself want to eat well, drink, dress well, live in wealth and every comfort? What is it to me that my neighbor is hungry, that he is cold, what is it to me, his vices, his errors—let him live as he knows how; only let it go well for me. So lives, and so speaks, a person who has neither faith, hope, nor love in his heart. And what good is it, that such a person sometimes goes to church and receives, for appearance’s sake, the Holy Mysteries of Christ? What good is it that he is called a Christian? No good at all. He is like a pagan—worse than a pagan even, and will be subject to a heavier condemnation at the judgment than a pagan; it will be more bearable at the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for him. The kingdom of God will be taken from him.

I say this because a great impoverishment of faith, hope, and love is now noticeable among Christians; people live for the visible and the present; faith in unseen blessings is either weak or has gone out entirely; everyone wants to live as merrily as possible in this present life, without concern for what will come after these brief joys, when we pass into eternity; we are called Christians, yet we forget that Christ, in His testament to His followers, left them the cross, or various misfortunes and sufferings: «whoever wishes to go after Me, let him renounce himself, and take up his own cross, and come after Me» (Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23; Mt 16:24). We are called Christians—that is, as though we had followed Christ and counted everything earthly of little worth, as though we had placed all our hope in Christ—but in fact, no: we follow after wealth, after pleasures, after every earthly comfort, we have placed our hope in earthly goods. We are called Christians, yet we provoke one another, envy one another, seize from one another, take no thought for one another. We are called Christians, yet loving Christ with our whole heart, and pleasing Christ with our whole life, is, for many, a thing entirely unfamiliar. The Lord wants us to think of the things above (Col 3:2), but we set our minds entirely on the things of earth; the Lord commands Christians to give heed to themselves, that their hearts be not burdened with overeating and drunkenness and the cares of everyday life (Lk 21:34), but with us it is precisely this—the burdening of our hearts with overeating, drunkenness, and the cares of everyday life—that goes on unceasingly.

Christians have become greatly given over to the flesh; few remain among them who walk by the spirit and do not carry out the lusts of the flesh. What kind of Christians are these, who do not even wish to spend the Lord’s feasts in a spiritual manner, but only in a carnal one—who drink themselves to drunkenness, wander staggering through the streets, sing indecent songs, and utter every kind of foul word? What kind of Christians are these, who, even on feast days, do not wish to come to church and pray earnestly, or, if they do come, come only so as not to break their habit, to show off their finery, or to talk about something with an acquaintance or a friend?

Brothers! I warn you with the Lord’s own true and fearsome word: the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that bears its fruits. Do not consider yourselves saved merely because you were born and live within a saving faith: a saving faith will not save you, if you yourselves do not take care for your salvation, if you live otherwise than those being saved ought to live. I warn you, brothers: like straw, like chaff, the Lord will burn you with unquenchable fire (Lk 3:17), if you live according to the flesh and not according to the spirit.

So then, I entreat you: work out your salvation—the eternal fire stands ready; and, too, the dwellings of the kingdom are not yet filled. Do not allow the Master to take the kingdom of God from you and give it to a nation that bears its fruits. Amen.