Saturday of the 4th Week of St. Luke
Listen to an audio podcast of this post at https://www.spreaker.com/episode/how-not-to-judge-saturday-of-the-4th-week-of-luke–62515051
The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Luke 6: 1-10.
At that time, the Lord went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with him; How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
There is a theological lesson here, and there is a moral lesson, as well.
The Lord Jesus Christ, in responding to the Pharisees’ accusation regarding the disciples’ breaking the Sabbath, proclaims that He, the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath. He is stating publicly that He is the God Who gave the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Then, by healing the suffering man’s withered hand by a simple command, He demonstrates that He is indeed the One Who “spake and they came to be; He commanded, and they were created.” Because of the blindness that is common to human nature, aggravated by their passions, His accusers cannot see what they are looking at in broad daylight: their own God, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, become a man and visiting His people, out of His infinite love for them, for their salvation.
St. Theophan the Recluse draws for us the moral lesson from these incidents:
The Lord’s disciples pluck the ears of grain, rub them in their hands and eat them on the Sabbath—a deed very unimportant both in appearance and in essence; meanwhile the Pharisees could not restrain themselves and rebuked them. What made them raise this issue? In appearance—unreasoning zeal, but in essence—the spirit of judging. This sticks to everything and presents all in a sombre form of unlawfulness and destructiveness. This infirmity, to a greater or lesser degree, is common to almost all people who do not watch themselves. Not everyone will express judgmental thoughts in word, but it is rare for a person to refrain from them. Someone sits beside the heart and stirs up judging—it pours forth. But at the same time the judge himself is prepared to do deeds which are not good, as long as nobody sees, and he is unfailingly in a state that is not so good in some way. It is as though he judges and condemns for that very reason—in order to satisfy his inwardly insulted and suppressed feeling of righteousness with attacks on others, groundless as they may be. He who loves righteousness and stands in it, knowing how difficult it is to attain correctness in deeds and even more so in feelings, will never judge; he is ready sooner to cover with leniency not only small, but also great transgressions of others. The Lord does not judge the judging Pharisees, but indulgently explains to them that the disciples did something that anyone would excuse if they thought about it rightly. And it almost always is this way: think reasonably about your neighbor’s actions and you will find that it does not at all have that serious, ghastly character which you saw at first. – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 229
Today, as we know, the invisible enemies of our salvation have convinced the leaders of society, and through them the broad masses of people, that non-judgment means the belief that sins are not sins – the only sin is to believe that there is such a thing as sin. The society around us is rapidly falling into moral chaos, and in such a situation it is easy to be angry all the time and see only evil in others. How can we attain the firm yet gentle spirit of Lot when he lived in Sodom; how can we be righteous in the midst of extreme and open sins, without being in a constant state of agitation and giving in to our thoughts of condemnation of everyone around us?
The first step is to believe unwaveringly in the Providence of God and His care for us. Fear of harm to ourselves by the evil actions of others incites agitation, and in the midst of this agitation we lash out with anger and condemnation. By constantly reviewing the providential deeds of God in the Scriptures, in the lives of the saints, and in our own lives, we can usually calm our souls. Let us beg the Lord for unwavering trust in His will to save us and His all-wise designs for every detail of our lives, which, if understood correctly, will be seen as the unrelenting action of the Lord for our true good.
The next step is to distinguish between the public arena and our private lives, to understand our place in the body politic and therefore the extent and limit of our responsibilities. It is a commonplace that during the Christian era ordinary men thought theologically, during the “Enlightenment” era men descended to think only philosophically, and that in the present Revolutionary era the overwhelming majority of men can only think politically – that is, in terms of the contest for power without reference to God or even to higher metaphysical principles. In such a situation, those of right belief – the Orthodox – have the duty to their fellow man to concentrate on the things that only they can do, that no one else is doing or can do – to preserve and teach the right Faith, to perform the right worship, and to practice the right teachings on pursuing the life of the active and contemplative virtues. If one does hold a position of authority in the public arena – e.g., a public official, a military officer, a teacher, (above all, a clergyman!), etc. – then one must, with trust in God, necessarily risk the improper use of anger, which is, apart from a great grace, inescapable in a fallen world, but without ever canonizing it, and with daily repentance, prayer, and supplication for the grace of preserving his soul while performing the onerous duties of his public station. If one does not hold such a position, he should concentrate on his private duties, a situation which provides greater freedom from conflict, and he should use this freedom to pray earnestly for his protectors – his “guardians,” to use the terminology of Plato’s Republic – who hold positions of public responsibility and therefore are inevitably faced with innumerable temptations to moral compromise on the left hand and to anger and condemnation on the right hand.
The next step is to realize that Our Lord’s command of non-condemnation applies first of all and above all to our daily intercourse with the people in front of us – family, fellow parishioners, friends, co-workers, etc. This is where we really practice the Gospel. If I take St. Theophan’s advice to heart – simply to think reasonably about my neighbor’s actions – then I shall calm down and see that he is not much different from me. I shall see that, like me, he is just another sinner, another victim of the devil, but nonetheless another precious soul made in the image of God, for whom Christ died on the Cross.
Let’s ask Our Lord for the grace needed to cultivate this state of mind, not to indulge in our logismoi about other people, and simply to pray more for them. All actual experience teaches us that this is what works.
