by Αrchimandrite Ananias Koustenis
On the third Sunday after Pentecost, my dear friends, in the Gospel of Matthew, there is a part of Christ’s speech on the mountain, where the philanthropist and omnipotent Jesus tries to relieve us of distress, concern and insecurity.
When man lost his God, he lost everything and became a sore, filled with anxiety, insecurity and sadness.
Man is insecure about his life and his future. And the Lord is trying to convince us that His providence and love are the ones that take care of us to detail.
And He brings examples from life, nature and ourselves, wanting to tell us that man’s mind and heart are light; a light that illuminates and leads man near God and into Paradise.
An example is the human eye that, when healthy, the whole body shines. And when the eye sickens, then the whole body sinks into the darkness.
So, if soul, consciousness and mind become dark, then man is in great moral and spiritual darkness, within Ηell itself.
And if some think that they can serve both wealth and God, Christ says that they are wrong.
The heart of man is made to love God and to seek Paradise. Everything else is a medium.
Then, Lord brings us to nature and tells us to look at the birds of Heaven, the birds of God, which neither toil nor gather goods in storehouses, and yet the Heavenly Father nourishes them. He does not put food in their mouth, but there is food. And they run, find and receive it.
And Christ says, “And if you take care too much, you will not win anything, nor a cubit nor a centimetre will be added to your stature.”
And yet “… the soul is superior to food, and body is superior to the garment.” Christ brings beautiful, convincing examples.
And then He takes us to the field’s lilies, the wild flowers, which exceed in beauty even glorious Solomon when he wore his best outfit and shone, for Lord cares them so much.
On our days, people, most of us have escaped God’s love and richness, kindness, tranquility and spiritual life, and we have entered into the tropics of darkness, wealth, fraud and corruption.
And we see the results every moment, both inside us and around us.
And Christ tells us that: “the pagans, who don’t believe in God, have concerns. You have God, an affectionate father, who knows what you want and need. “It is in our interest to leave ourselves in His grace. He does not say: “do not work,” he says: “do not concern,” because concern is a big thorn.
Stress creates many evil things. And our Christ wants to spare us. That is why He gave us so many examples and urged us with such wonderful words to leave ourselves in His Providence, love and affection, and to have one priority; the one that closes this part of the Gospel: “We should first ask for the Kingdom of God…”, for we are made for this;” “…and His righteousness and holiness.”
This is our purpose; to be filled with Divine Grace, to follow the road to deity, to be sanctified, to become “the luminous children of the Church” and “settlers in Paradise”. This is what we need and is in our interest, and let us try to do it, with the grace of our Christ.
