DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Saint Matthew 11:27-30 (12/5-12/18) The Feast of the Venerable Sabbas
the Sanctified
Changing Burdens: Saint Matthew 11:27-30, especially vs.
28: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.” Saint John
Chrysostom reveals that each of us exists between Christ’s invitation to
come to Him and being weighed down by a burden of sin, “...heavy and hard
to bear.” This spiritual
location is crucial, for if we face up to and become conscious of what we are
bearing under sin, then we may move toward relief by embracing the grace in the
Lord Jesus’ invitation - rest for the soul (vs. 29). The Prophet David certainly knew the
weight and labor that sin imposes on us: “For mine iniquities are risen higher than my head; as a heavy burden have they
pressed heavily upon me (Ps. 37:4).
Saint John encourages us toward Christ’s invitation:
“For nothing so weighs upon the soul, and presses it down, as consciousness
of sin; nothing so much gives it wings, and raises it on high as the attainment
of virtue. And mark it: what is
more grievous, I pray thee, than to have no
possessions? to turn the cheek, and when smitten not
to smite again? to die by a violent death? Yet nevertheless, if we practice
self-command, all these things are light and easy....”
Often possessions overwhelm if we have them; for then, day
and night, we live in fear about their preservation, grieve when the stock
market falls, groan when prices strain our means, fret when we see wear and
tear shredding what we have gained, and weep when drought or thief steal that
for which we have labored. But
brethren, remember the delight of those who chose and choose poverty, the
Saints and others who have their joy in the spirit of Christ.
Hear Saint John Chrysostom on turning the cheek:
“...to him that gives heed, a less grievous thing than to smite
another....And whether is lighter...to fight, or to have the prize?.... Therefore also, to die is better than to live. For the one withdraws us from waves and
dangers, while the other adds unto them, and makes a
man subject to numberless plots and distresses, which have made life not worth
living....” Here Elder
Thaddeus cautions us: “No matter what people do or say to us, we must be
meek and forgive every offense.”
This is the life in Christ.
Those who have given but modest attention to the life of
Saint John Chrysostom know that he perished unjustly, marched to exhaustion in
old age and exiled at the farthest borders of Byzantium’s Empire on the
eastern shores of the Black Sea in a distant region now part of Georgia. It is this man who challenges us to
recall the demeanor of the martyrs as they died for Christ - they “...were glad of heart, more than such as lie upon a bed of
roses.” And John himself, as
the biographer J. N. D. Kelly reports, when he knew that his departure had
come, stretched out on a bed and uttered his last words which “...had been
habitually on his lips, and which summarily expressed one of his deepest
convictions, ‘Glory to God for everything.’”
Let us heed Christ and not call Him ‘Savior’
for nothing. All of these sins that
we have reviewed He scorned, and herewith He invites us also to overcome them
by accepting His yoke: “For My yoke is easy and My
burden is light” (Mt. 11:30).
We need to return to Saint John again as we reflect on the great
spiritual watershed we face: “...long-suffering is the mother of all good
things. Fear not
therefore, neither start away from the yoke that lightens thee of all
these things, but put thyself under it with all forwardness, and then thou shalt know well the pleasure thereof. For it doth not at all bruise thy neck,
but is put on thee for good order’s sake only, and to persuade thee to
walk seemly, and to lead thee unto the royal road, and to deliver thee from the
precipices on either side, and to make thee walk with ease in the narrow
way.”
Lord, help us to endure temptations and humiliations in
this world; but to rejoice within our heart, because our conscience is at
peace; for while the world despises virtuous men, yet it envies them, for as
our ancestors used to say, even the enemy admires virtues - as You do.
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