"Francis, what is more valuable?
Serving Master or servant?"
"Now I can truly say: Our Father, who art in Heaven"
Mt 6: 24-34
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: "No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or the one and despise the other can not serve God and mammon.
Therefore I tell you about your life Do not worry about what you will eat or drink, nor about your body, what you will wear Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air do not sow or reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? And who of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life? And why take ye thought for raiment?
Observe how the lilies of the field do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. Now if God so clothe the grass of the field, today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? Of all these things do the Gentiles; your heavenly Father knows that you need.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its'.
The Commentary
not beat it. Our hearts can not 'survive to compromise. Even if our life is full, we can not serve two masters. The words of Jesus are clear: love mammon, money, God means hating Just to nail this. The flowers of the field and the fowls of heaven are examples that accept these items.
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: "No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or the one and despise the other can not serve God and mammon.
Therefore I tell you about your life Do not worry about what you will eat or drink, nor about your body, what you will wear Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air do not sow or reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? And who of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life? And why take ye thought for raiment?
Observe how the lilies of the field do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. Now if God so clothe the grass of the field, today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? Of all these things do the Gentiles; your heavenly Father knows that you need.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its'.
The Commentary
not beat it. Our hearts can not 'survive to compromise. Even if our life is full, we can not serve two masters. The words of Jesus are clear: love mammon, money, God means hating Just to nail this. The flowers of the field and the fowls of heaven are examples that accept these items.
dwell today on the terms used by Jesus' love and hate . Money is power, prestige and glory. With the money buy the affections, bind people. The money is superimposed on our own person, and become his obedient servants. The love of money and 'the root of all evil. Do not count the masses, the group membership, commitment to the parish. Has not even be a priest or bishop.
Jesus points to the heart and, as always, it leaves room for excuses. If the heart is attached to the money is hating God . Hate. It is no coincidence that appears in the Judas Gospel as the Apostle who was holding the bag ... Do not mess around. People who really know the Lord, who belong to him can not bind in any way to money and idols of this world. Pena schizophrenia or insanity.
Worrying about the future, the scramble for money is what the pagans, those who know not God But perhaps we even admit that we know God, we do not have the experience of his power over sin, death, in all circumstances. Perhaps our approach to the vicissitudes of life, at home, at work in the Church is deeply worldly. Perhaps it is money that drives us in the choices. How to earn, how to put it aside, as have more. Death looms, we have not experienced the victory of Christ, and we are overwhelmed by anxiety to possess, to defend. Fear makes us sterile, folded in on ourselves, and we closed in a dark selfishness, unable to open up and giving.
pauperism is not feel-good, this is the relationship that each of us with money. Of course, one must be cautious, even an alleged generosity often mask a sick relationship with money. The point is the heart. Jesus tells us to help us discover what weight has now mammon in our lives. It 's the easiest way to find out that given instead to God's world is driven by money: the votes of the election move according to economic policies, and reward those who promise lowering of payroll taxes and more robust, even if you This is a band of criminals, even if they legislate in favor of abortion and euthanasia. A Christian who tries to make tomorrow, which lives in anxiety for the future, which accumulates, which looks at everything through the eyes of a stockbroker, is the greatest scandal. He hates God, hates his love, his mercy, he hates the cross. He does not believe in the power of Jesus, and any report will be tainted by suspicion, fear, the frantic search of a security, however, the meat and the money can not offer.
The world belongs to those who look first to the portfolio. 'S where his heart. Not so for those who have known the Lord. People who have experienced His mercy does not think twice to shed expensive oil nard to anoint Jesus' body, a sign of life, own, totally surrendered to the Lord. People who know the love of God throws away everything that has to live because he knows that his life is not by material goods, but from a Christian God is different than any other man because he has in another life, because he lives with hidden Christ in God and experience, in the uncertainties of each day, the providential hand of his Father. We are not orphans, children of freedom is realized total abandonment and confidant to his heavenly Father, in the same certainty of the Lord. At the bottom of the tomb, there where nothing and no one could get there to rescue them, he experienced the love of his Father. In the words of the Gospel of Jesus shines through this assurance today, the experience of a father capable to dissolve his Son from the chains of death. A love stronger than the grave. The experience of St. Francis, the joy of those who live like a bird, free and victorious in the events of history.
To this day the Lord calls us to conversion seriously, to throw her arms, to get rid of assets, to all those goods that stand between us and him throw away everything, in our hearts, usurps the place of God , poisoning and making a scandal.
The condition of a Christian is insecurity, the uncertainty that accompanies every moment. In it goes left to a Christian God, of course, like Abraham, the Lord on the mountain provides. Loving Christ today is to sell everything, leave our hearts for Him not for our forces, to our minds. But can him. We seek Him, the Kingdom of God today, and every moment, every event, every decision, every thought, every word. then draw near to God with a contrite heart, and beg that this word be fulfilled in us, that makes us what we're elected, even before being born. Christians.
St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833), Conversations with Russian monaco
Motovilov
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you"
[Motovilov San Serafino and are immediately immersed in a great light and very soft. Seraphim said to him:] My friend, the men have been created so that the grace of God dwell in the depths of our being, in our hearts. The Lord said: "The kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:21). With Kingdom of God, will the grace of the Holy Spirit that kingdom of God is among us at this time. The Holy Spirit enlightens us and warms us, fills the air of its perfumes, delights the senses and watering our hearts with a joy unspeakable. Experience what the Apostle Paul says: "The kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17) ... Here, a friend of God as incomparable joy the Lord saw fit to grant. Here's what it means to be "in the fullness of the Holy Spirit" ... As we are humble, the Lord has filled with the fullness of his Spirit. It seems to me that from now on will no longer have to interrogate the way in which it occurs in humans the presence and grace of the Holy Spirit ...
As for our different states Monaco and secular, do not worry. God seeks above all a heart full of faith in him and in his Son. In return, sends from the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Lord seeks a heart full of love for him and the next - this is a throne on which he likes to sit and where it appears in the fullness of his glory. "My son, give me your heart, and the rest will be given you besides" (Prov 23.26). The human heart is capable of holding the Kingdom of Heaven. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his truth, saith the Lord, and all these things shall be added to you, because God our Father knows that you need."
San Silvano (1886-1938), Monaco Orthodox Writings
The Lord said to his disciples:" I give you my peace "(Jn 14 , 27). This peace of Christ should ask God, and the Lord will give it to someone who asks, and when we receive it, we watch a holy about it and make it grow.
One who, in distress, it is abandoned to the will of God can not know the mercy of God if a disaster hits you, do not let down, but remember that the Lord looks at you with kindness. Do not accept this thought: "The Lord will lay maybe they look at me that I offended? "because the Lord is benevolent by nature. Instead, ask with faith in God and 'like the prodigal son in the Gospel: "I am not worthy to be called your son" (Lk 15:21). Then you'll see what are dear to the Father, and your mind will know a joy beyond description.
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