Metropolitan Augoustinos Kantiotes: “Heartlessness, the greatest sin.”

(Transcribed from a sermon given on November 5, 1972)

 

“Remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus likewise evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish…” (Luke 16:25)

Man, my beloved, whether rich or poor, is sinful. From his mother’s womb he swims in sin; he sins from morning till night. Whoever says, “I have no sin,” is a liar; he has not known himself (cf. Rom. 3:4 = Ps. 115:2; cf. 1 John 1:8,10). Who can count his sins!

On Great Tuesday, in the hymn of Kassiani, we hear: “The multitude of my sins and the abysses of Your judgments—who can fathom them, O soul-saving Savior of mine?” Who, it says, will be able to count my sins?

That is why at our funeral those words will be said—words which, unfortunately, we do not pay attention to—that “…there is no man who shall live and not sin”… (Euchologion, Third Funeral Prayer, ed. Holy Monastery of Simonopetra, Mount Athos 2002, p. 4)

So then, man commits a multitude of sins, both small and great. If you now ask, what is the greatest sin? I will tell you: theft, murder, adultery, fornication, divorce, perjury, blasphemy—all these are great sins, and woe to the one who commits them and does not repent. But there is another sin that often escapes our notice; and it is about this sin that today’s Gospel speaks (cf. Luke 16:19–31).

What does it say? It presents to us two men: one poor, Lazarus, and one rich, whose name is not mentioned. It tells us how they lived and how they ended their lives. When Lazarus died, the angels came, took him on their wings, lifted him up to heaven, and led him into paradise. —But what notable thing did this poor man do? Does it follow from this that every poor man goes to paradise?…

No, you are mistaken; for there are also poor people who are malicious, deceitful, liars, swindlers, forgers, grumblers, blasphemers. These will not go to paradise, even if they are poor. The poor man in today’s parable was a saint. Why?

Because besides being poor, he was also sick, unable to work. You too may be poor, but you have your health; and when you have health, you are rich. A millionaire in Chicago once fell ill (he had cancer of the larynx), and at the hospital he said: Doctor, make me well and I’ll give you all my fortune!… What good is money when you are sick with an incurable disease?

But Lazarus, besides being poor and sick, was also completely alone, deserted and abandoned. No one looked after him. Only some dogs kept him company; they would come near him and lick his wounds—these were his nurses.

To all this add the following: he did not live in isolation, far from people, but within society, in a city that could feed not just one but many poor people—and that made it all the more painful for him. To be in the wilderness and die of thirst, that I can understand; but to be near a spring and not be allowed to drink a single glass of water is unbearable.

Poverty, sickness, loneliness, deprivation, patience—this was his heavy cross. He was the most miserable of all. And yet, for years, he did not open his mouth to utter a single evil word, to curse the day he came into life or the mother who bore him, to grumble against God or to blaspheme. None of these things; on his lips was always “Glory to Thee, O God.” That is why he went to paradise.

—So then, you are telling us, in other words, that we too should live this way, tormented in this world, while others eat, drink, and feast? Isn’t that unjust, irrational, meaningless?… He went, we said, to paradise. But is that not the very purpose of our life? O world, deceitful earth! You wonder because you do not believe. How much people have changed! A hundred years ago they used to say to one another, “May you have a good paradise!”

Do you hear that said anymore? No. That is why destruction is coming. You do not believe in hell? Then our life here will become hell, so that you may come to believe that there is both hell and paradise. —And who has seen paradise?… Are you not ashamed to ask such a question? Christ has seen it, the Theotokos, the angels; the thief on Golgotha saw it.

—“Remember me, Lord,” he said, “when You come into Your kingdom.” And Christ answered him: —“Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:42–43). The first to enter paradise was the thief. You call yourself a Christian, and you doubt? You do not believe in the world to come, and you laugh; but you will weep, you will weep much—but it will be too late.

So then Lazarus went to paradise. From there he sees the rich man far off, in hell. —What evil did the rich man do to end up there? Did he steal? Kill? Stab? Commit a crime?… He committed the greatest sin: he feasted. —And is it a sin to feast?…

When a feast comes, you may rejoice with modesty, drink a glass of wine, eat a good meal with your wife and children, sing and dance in moderation. But that man held a feast every day, with instruments, women, drunkenness; he spent lavishly on food and drink, dressed in silk, in every luxury.

And beneath his mansion sat the poor beggar Lazarus, hungry. Never did the heartless man give him a single plate of food. Only when the servants shook out the tablecloths did Lazarus wait for crumbs to fall, so he might satisfy his hunger with them!

What the Gospel says, I have seen, brothers, with my own eyes during the years of the Occupation in Kozani. Little children, early in the morning outside the soup kitchen, would wet their fingers with saliva and, bending down, would gather up crumbs from the ground. I watched them for a long time—if only I had had a camera to photograph them!

They were like little sparrows that come outside the window and peck. Do you hear, children, who throw away bread? You will go hungry, because you eat the good things and do not make the sign of the Cross, you do not say “Glory to Thee, O God.” The time will come when you will call bread—just bread—a luxury.

The rich man was heartless; instead of a heart, he had a stone within him. And he went to hell. —To hell? But is there such a thing as hell? And what is hell? Snakes, fire, frying pans?… It certainly exists, and would that it were such things; but it is something far worse. It is fire—but fire that is never quenched!

In Athens, they were trying a man who had killed his wife—he had turned her into ground meat. His conscience was crying out to him, “Murderer, criminal!” In his defense before the prosecutor, he said: What punishment can you give me now? I am burning by myself! I have fire inside me…

This is what the Gospel says: the poor man went to paradise, and the rich man to hell. —Do all the rich go to hell?… No. Take Abraham, for example—he was rich, yet he went to paradise. Why? Because he had compassion. Rich men, whom I rebuke, have said to me: —You’re always going after us. But why? Did we not labor? Are not the riches ours? Can we not do with them as we please?…

No, they are not yours. The money you gathered, you earned while living within a society: some law enforcement officer protected your stores, some soldiers guarded the borders of the state, some teachers educated your children… If society did not exist, you would not have been able to become wealthy. Therefore, the money you acquired does not belong to you alone; you are obliged to give from it also to the poor and the unfortunate.

—There are no poor people today, you might say to me. That’s another fairy tale. Do you want me to tell you some cases? In one village, where they claimed there were no poor people, we found an old man in a hayloft, forgotten, surrounded by filth and stench, and we took him to the nursing home. Elsewhere, another man, whose sons had thrown him out because their wives didn’t want him, we found him near death; we took him too.

If I told you that someone in the city lights his way at night with a torch, would you believe it? So go on, sir, enjoy your feasting and tell your fine fairy tales. Of course, we do not suffer as we once did; but poverty still exists, and we must not be heartless. If you do not give, Christ will punish you.

Observe the nations of the world—I belong to none of them, I am a Greek and above all a Christian. Whatever nation distributes its goods and shows mercy, God blesses it; whatever nation does not show mercy, suffers and goes hungry, no matter how many fertile plains it may possess. We need the blessing of God. Where the blessing exists, a single clod of earth is enough to feed a village; if the blessing is absent, an entire plain cannot feed even one man.

Believe, my brothers. We have a great and true faith. Shut your ears to unbelief. Stay close to God, close to the Church, close to the homeland; only thus shall we advance.

You are not rich men or Onassises, you are blessed poor folk. Imitate Lazarus. Do you know what “Lazarus” means? It is a Hebrew name. “Lazarus” means “God has” or “God possesses.” And I conclude with an example.

Believe, my brothers. We have a great and true faith. Shut your ears to unbelief. Stay close to God, close to the Church, close to the homeland; only thus shall we advance.

You are not rich men or Onassises, you are blessed poor folk. Imitate Lazarus. Do you know what “Lazarus” means? It is a Hebrew name. “Lazarus” means “God provides” or “God possesses.” And I conclude with an example.

Around 1942, I was walking in Thessaloniki, during miserable years, when the sound of German boots echoed through the cobbled streets. As I was coming down from the Heptapyrgion, I saw a greengrocer. He was pulling a small cart loaded with carrots, potatoes, vegetables, and on the cart was written: “God provides!”

It struck me. I stopped him, to buy something and start a conversation. —What is this you’ve written here? —I believe, he said to me; I have seen God!

 

Greek source: https://353agios.blogspot.com/2022/11/blog-post_83.html