The significance of celebrating the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple less than one week into the Nativity Fast is understood because our hopes are found in this feast. If Sts. Joachim & Anna had not dedicated their daughter Mary to the Temple, the Word of God could never have become incarnate, and dwelt among us. When we commemorate the Entry of the Theotokos, we are celebrating the beginning of our salvation, as the Apolytikion of the Feast proclaims: “Today is the prelude of God's pleasure and the proclamation of man's salvation. The Virgin is clearly made manifest in the temple of God and foretells Christ to all.” Our Lady has become the Temple and we can understand that so many things— the sanctuary gate, the Ark of the Covenant, even the Burning Bush—were types of the Virgin Mary, showing us how God would save us, and reconcile us to Him.
In the Parable from this Sunday’s Gospel, Christ tells us of a Rich Man whose land brought for a crop so large, this man considered tearing down and rebuilding his barns. The Man reasoned with his soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:19). However, God rebukes him, “‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:20). Christ’s message is clear: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).
The Gospel does not say whether this Rich Man committed any grave sin in his work of acquiring the field. Indeed, according to human understanding, the Man seems wise. However, he flatters himself by thinking that his work is finished. As all good Christians know “…every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…” (James 1:17). For all his positive qualities he forgets the most crucial: a humble and thankful heart.
As we approach what our society refers to as “the holiday season”, let us imitate the charity of Saints Joachim and Anna who offered their greatest gift to the Lord; and of course, to our Theotokos and Ever-Virgin, who lived by her parents’ example, and said “Yes” to God. May we use this Feast to examine our own hearts, asking how we too can live be their examples, whether through acts of charity, or even simple love and kindness. Only when we seek to emulate the sacrificial spirits of Joachim & Anna, and the Theotokos, will we truly be worthy to be called children of God ourselves.
+SEVASTIANOS
Metropolitan of Atlanta
9th Sunday of Luke: ‘A Fierce Condemnation of Greed’
By Protopresbyter Nikolaos Patsalos
On the Ninth Sunday of Saint Luke the Gospel reading (Luke 12:16-21) again revolves around the great temptation of the misuse of wealth. The Parable of the Foolish Rich Man is well-known and, at the same time, of enduring interest to everyone, not only to those who have a lot of money.
The man mentioned in the Gospel today was so rich that he didn’t have room to store all his wealth and goods. It appears that his sole interest in life was to acquire more and more goods. He was the type of man who, instead of being in love with the beauty of life, was someone with a life-long passion for an abundance of material goods. The poor man was under the illusion that, by hoarding wealth, he was storing up happiness.
This kind of concern really is a sickness. In other words, it’s an erosion of the soul because of which, instead of people working in order to live a decent life, they live and work in order to make profits. The rich man in the Gospel isn’t merely rich; he’s completely devoted to and absorbed in how to become even richer. He’s the personification of a person whose sole interest is money and worldly goods.
The question is: to what extent does this way of thinking satisfy the minds of people today? Obviously, the Gospel refers to riches in a number of places, but what’s condemned isn’t the possession of wealth itself, but the way in which it’s used. According to the logic of the Gospel, it’s a considerable trial to be rich. If your wealth is a source of joy for your neighbor, then you can be called rich in Christ. But if your riches are purely and simply there to serve your own selfish needs, so that you can eat and drink to your heart’s content, then, as far as the Gospel is concerned, you’re avaricious and that’s all there is to it.
Greed and avarice are terrible passions. In monasticism, one of the three life-long vows is not to possess anything. In other words, the rejection of and severance from all earthly possessions so as to be able to acquire possession of heaven. Outside monasticism, this is put into practice by developing a healthy relationship to material goods and money. Our aim should not be how to become rich on earth by piling up riches, but how to cover our necessary earthly needs. And it’s certainly true that people can live respectable lives with only a few, simple things. What makes it difficult to understand this truth is the manic consumerism of modern culture, which, instead of simplifying our lives makes them even more complicated.
The outlook of the foolish rich man never changed, because riches and an abundance of goods become the aim of life in themselves. We’ll be seeing the truth of this in a few days, as we approach Christmas. The only thing that today’s modern world will highlight is the consumerism associated with Christmas: the food, the gifts, the sparkling decorations and all the other subsidiary aspects of the feast of the Nativity of the Incarnate Lord. So, although, it’s an event which, as true Christians we should experience mystically and simply, our warped outlook wants us to celebrate it like the ‘foolish rich man’, that is, with abundance. The Gospel, however, pours scorn on greed as an attitude and way of life and promotes the virtue of simplicity and the golden mean so that we have the opportunity to experience the true riches of God.
Greek Orthodox Nun Elucidates the Plight of Christians in the Holy Land
Dear Brother Archons and friends of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos, a Greek Orthodox nun who has lived in the Holy Land for many years, recently granted a lengthy and detailed interview to journalist Tucker Carlson on the persecution of Christians in the Holy Land. If you have not watched this interview in its entirety already, I strongly urge you to do so, as Mother Agapia provides a uniquely illuminating perspective on the difficulties that our sister and brothers in the faith face on a daily basis.
As you watch this revealing and often shocking interview, please remain in prayer for the Greek Orthodox Christians of Israel and its environs, and for all the embattled Christians of that war-torn region.
Watch the interview here, and see a full transcript here.
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