“Lay Up Your Treasures In Heaven…”
Cheesefare Sunday
Romans 13:11-14; 14:1-4; Matthew 6:14-21
Once upon a time, people stored their savings in chests or in some other safe place, but they stored it in order to buy something later or to save it for a time when they will not have the strength to work, or to save something from their labour for their children.
Now, of course, savings are made to an account in a bank or similar institutions. There is no harm in that. Evil comes when a person is profligate, drinks his earnings. But the Lord Jesus Christ calls us not to invest our "heart" in those material savings, in those treasures, but to open an account - in the heavenly "bank":
"Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven..." (Matthew 6:20).
The Lord knows that a person becomes attached to material treasures (values) -- and likewise, when one adds spiritual treasures to the heavenly account, one will become attached to and cherish those spiritual treasures. The Lord says: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Mt. 6:21).
Treasures for heaven are primarily our good deeds, deeds and acts of mercy, love for our neighbours, for our people, for our Church of Christ. And into that heavenly treasury, a person can "put his heart", his efforts, zeal and energy – and those should make up the content, the intention of a Christian's life.
We stand on Cheesefare Sunday at the threshold of Great Lent -- tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of Great Lent. Before entering any institution, a person thinks about why one is going there. For example: we know why we go to the post office, a particular store or clinic, or doctor's office.
Before entering the Great Lent, a Christian must also reflect, think: why, what is the Great Lent for?
Many people have developed a false, formal understanding of Great Lent: fasting is not eating meat, not dancing... Great Lent is established by the Church, imitating the forty-day fast of the Lord Jesus Christ, for spiritual fulfillment, for the purification of the souls of believers from sin and union with Christ in the Holy Communion, for the perfecting of Christian virtues and coming closer to God. And Passion Week was added to understand and experience the sufferings of Christ.
Basic physical fasting does not add anything to Christian virtues. Eating or not eating meat also makes little difference in our spiritual capacities, if it is not combined with our spiritual efforts.
Spiritual fasting is, first of all, conscious restraint of one's desires from various temptations, restraint from the path of sin. Therefore, abstinence from the most modest food cannot serve as an end in itself in fasting, because, as Christ testified, there is no sin in food itself: "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth - that defiles a person." (Mt. 15:11).
Fasting with the stomach itself for a healthy person is very needful, and beneficial, like the fasting that we more often practise (it is now called a diet); but the simple physical fasting is not yet a spiritual matter. Doctors now often prescribe a certain diet -- a body fast, and it's good for us to follow that prescription, but it has nothing to do with our spirituality.
The Pharisees, as we heard three weeks ago from the Gospel (Luke 18:12), fasted for two days every week, even made large donations to the temple (one-tenth of their income). But Christ did not consider this a virtue for the Pharisees, for they did not lay up a treasure for themselves in heaven, because they wanted to glorify themselves on earth with that fasting and donations. However, they did not show the main virtue - love for their fellow man; similarly, they did not show mercy to the very people around them, especially to widows; said the Lord:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who eat widows' houses, and pretend to pray for a long time, because of that you will receive a heavier judgment." (Mt. 23:14)
St. John Chrysostom advises us to fast not only with the stomach and food, but also with the eyes, ears, feet and hands, as well as with the mouth. That we restrain all those organs of our body from sinful actions, from the road to sin, as well as to restrain our mouths from sinful expressions, from causing pain and suffering to our neighbours.
St. Apostle Paul says that there is no benefit from such a fast, as when we do not eat meat, but eat our neighbour, slandering him. The apostle states that when you do not eat the flesh of animals, but eat the soul of your neighbour, you cause him mental wounds, sow suspicion and cause him suffering in many ways.
(To illustrate such inappropriate fasting, it is enough to recall the relationship between Mrs. Kaidashikha and her daughters-in-law, -- in The Kaidash Family story. We might also recall that Adolf Hitler did not eat meat or fish...)
We should always take care of the heavenly treasures of good deeds of love and mercy, but especially we should be mindful of them during the Great Lent-- the time designated by the Church for spiritual perfection, spiritual enrichment, which must begin with forgiving the sins of our neighbours--and, furthermore, for all of us to attain humility, and to ask our neighbours to forgive our willful and unwilful offenses against them. If we do that, then we will truly come closer to God.
Then, when we ask God for forgiveness in The Holy Sacrament of Confession, we can be sure that the Lord will show us His mercy and forgive us our sins. For the Lord testified:
"He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Mt. 23:12
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.