A HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
About Trusting in the Lord’s Care and Being Satisfied with What God Provides
Brothers and sisters!
Today’s Gospel lection begins with our Lord’s statement that the light of the body is the eye. Why does Christ say the eye and not the eyes? It is because He has in mind here not physical eyes, but the spiritual eye, our heart, in which is implanted the conscience, the inner law indicating to us what is good and what is evil. As for the body, by this Christ means our entire life: our thoughts, desires, and intentions; all of our doings throughout the whole course of our earthly sojourn. The heart or conscience, then, is a lamp illumining man on the path of life with respect to everything he thinks, desires, intends, says, and does.
And the Lord continues: If, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. If your heart, your conscience, is single – that is, if it speaks to you simply, directly, and purely – then your thoughts, deeds, intentions, and undertakings will be blessed, bright, and unsullied. But if thine eye, the conscience, be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness; that is, your whole life will be unrighteous, murky, and unclean. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! If the light of your life, your heart, which God has given you as a lamp, gives no light, because you have not fed it the oil of faith and the works of faith, then how dark must be your life as a whole: your reasonings, desires, and doings! Contrast the man with a simple heart, who has a direct and Christian outlook on life, who heeds and cultivates his conscience, with the one whose conscience is neglected and obscured, and who is a slave to the world and the flesh. The actions of the first are marked by fairness, sincerity, and goodwill toward his neighbor and purity of intention before the Lord; those of the second by deception, hypocrisy, craftiness, animosity, and conflict with others and doublemindedness before God.
The first man is satisfied with little and is not consumed by constant desire to acquire something else. He is temperate in his diet, and his attire is simple and modest. He is not driven by a feeling that he must earn an ever-higher salary or live in a big, ostentatious house, but is content with earning his daily bread and a little more, to save for difficult times and old age. He seeks only to avoid being a burden to others and to provide what is truly needed by his family. Having this, he thanks God and asks for no more, because he understands that what is more than this is superfluous and can give rise to manifold temptations. If abundance comes his way anyhow, he uses it to increase his almsgiving, and does not squander it on needless frivolities and pleasures, nor store it all up miserly with intent to secure himself against every possible misfortune.
Now let us turn to the person who has an evil heart and a crooked conscience, who is a thrall to the flesh. He is never satisfied with his situation in life: if his cup is full, he wants it to flow over the brim. He is frequently a slave to the belly, and unable to control himself at table. The normal state of consciousness God has given man, in which he can work and pray and do everything else needful in life, seems too hum-drum to him, so he often likes to have his drink, of which he partakes too frequently and to excess. He may even make use of other means of intoxication, mind-befuddling narcotics. This job does not exactly suit him, or perhaps he thinks it does not pay enough, so he must find a different one; his automobile is three years old now, so it is time for another: he is never satisfied. He is always inventing new “needs,” or is at very least fixated on satisfying those he has already devised. To others it may seem that everything he has is fine, but he cannot be content, because his heart is darkened, passionate, insatiable, irritable, and irrational. The reason for this is that he does not know the Lord’s commandments or has forgotten them; does not want to know or remember them; is unconcerned to discover and understand the truth; does not desire to live according to Christ’s truth; and is not guided by the light of Christ’s Gospel, the good news of the path of deliverance. Whatever his blind, passionate flesh, will, and desires urge him to do, that he does; whatever it pushes him to, that he must have.
No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Every man has the choice of serving one of two masters in life. The first is the Lord God; the second is materiality, the sin-loving flesh, through which the devil operates, chaining us to the world. God asks of us devotion to fulfilling His will and a devout life, while the flesh constantly leads us into sin: gluttony; drunkenness; carnal falls; pride; envy; enmity; laziness; and the love of status, money, and pleasure. There can be no agreement between service to God and service to the flesh, for the word of God plainly teaches, They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and desires.[1] Saint Paul warns us, Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the desires thereof, [2] and most certainly, to the degree that we please the flesh, we become unconcerned about self-amendment, about the pursuit of virtue, about pleasing God, and about salvation of the soul. And so it is that we fail to correct our hearts and do not strive for the heavenly homeland, but remain chained to earth, to earthly enjoyments. Whoever loves what is of the world does not love God as he should. The Lord’s counsels and commandments seem extremely grievous to him. Thus he lacks charity towards his neighbor and is unconcerned about his neighbor’s salvation, because he does not care much even about his own. He is slow to help others, because he loves himself too much and is always looking to his own advantage, or rather, his advantage as he misconstrues it.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than rainment? It is foolish, improper, and demeaning, dear brothers and sisters, to be fixated on food, drink, clothing, money, material possessions, or entertaining oneself. To be preoccupied with these things is to allow one’s life in God to wither up or even to perish altogether. To be enslaved to their service is what Christ called “to serve mammon.” Bondage to mammon flips our whole life upside-down: instead of concerning ourselves primarily with our souls -- with cleansing, reforming, and sanctifying the inner man -- we are only worried about feeding, clothing, pleasing, and entertaining the outer man. Meanwhile, the immortal soul, made in the image and likeness of God, perishes daily in sin. The body we stuff with food, the soul we allow to hunger; the body we adorn with sharp clothes, the soul shivers in its nakedness. But is not the life more than meat, and the body than rainment? If the soul is more than food, Christ says, why do you neglect it so, focusing all or almost all your attention on secondary things, like food, or even on inherently sinful things and pursuits?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? The Lord reminds us who have little faith of the birds, so that we will understand that our Father in heaven has constant, unsleeping care for the whole of creation, which He has maintained in existence since its very beginning. God, our Father, provides for everything on earth, and especially for man, the crown of His works. The example Christ offers, of the birds of heaven, which do not sow or reap, but always have enough to eat, should convince us to put our trust in divine providence and to have certain faith that God will supply whatever is necessary for us. Of course, the Lord does not mean that we should fold our hands and expect that everything we would like to have will fall from heaven onto our laps: even the birds must fly about all day searching out their meals. Rather, it is our part to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to our work, knowing that labor is man’s lot in life and is blessed by God. So doing, we ought not feel uneasiness about the ups and downs of our employment, or grow impatient with our situation. Throughout every difficulty, vicissitude, and uncertainty, the Lord blesses us, crowns us with whatever measure of success is to our benefit, and provides for our true needs.
Further, Christ says, Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Does not everything ultimately depend on God? Why do we worry, instead of committing ourselves to His care? Our responsibility in life extends no further than to toil sincerely, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,[3] in the words of Saint Paul. Ours is to labor; whatever success we may have, whatever we may achieve – this is in God’s hands. In any case, He will certainly provide whatever we truly need, as He does for the sparrows, for the worms, for the least insect.
And why take ye thought for rainment? He asks further on. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? By asking why we take thought for rainment, the Lord reminds us that we should not have an attachment to clothes, just as He earlier warned us not to worry about food or drink. Of course, it is impossible for a man to have absolutely no concern for what he is to wear: our clothing must be proper and clean, and someone must labor to make it. The immaculate Virgin Mary herself spun and sewed, and made the coat without seams, woven from the top throughout,[4] for which the soldiers cast lots at the Crucifixion. But to be obsessed with adornment of the body is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel: it makes us vain, petty, proud, and immodest. Our first parents, in their uncorrupted state, had no need of garments. And just what is clothing, ultimately, if not a bandage with which to cover up the wound of sin, the ancestral sin of Adam and Eve, and our own sin? Rather than waste time and money on beautiful bandages, would we not do better to turn our attention to the wound itself, to see that it heals? In Holy Baptism we received vesture of a different sort, the garment of incorruption, the robe of righteousness in Christ. Better to concern ourselves with this item of clothing; better to let it be our adornment. If we keep it undefiled and wash it out thoroughly with tears of repentance when it gets soiled, then the Lord will garb us in holiness, glory, and light for all eternity.
Take no thought, then, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. Hear, beloved Christians, what the Lord is telling us in today’s gospel: it is the heathen, not Christians, whose chief concern is the things of the flesh. Christians are concerned to do the works of God; to lead a pure, devout life. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Every good, wise master provides for His slaves. Rest entirely assured, then, that the Lord God will feed and clothe us, and provide all our needs, if only we prove ourselves His true, faithful, and obedient servants. Amen.
[1] Gal. 5:24
[2] Rom. 13:14
[3] Eph. 6:6
[4] John 19:23
