Dr Augustin Sokolovski
On the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the Church appoints for the Gospel reading a passage from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel according to Matthew. This is a very unusual theme for a Sunday Gospel reading, because such readings are usually devoted either to parables or to the deeds of Jesus.
To understand why the Sermon on the Mount is read on this particular Third Sunday, we must look back at the preceding Sundays. On the First Sunday after Pentecost—the Sunday of All Saints—the Lord, in the Gospel reading, calls us to follow Him and promises that everyone who has left behind his former life, his former riches, and everything else for His sake will receive a hundredfold even here on earth and will inherit eternal life.
On the Second Sunday, the Church reads the account of the calling of the Apostles, that is, of those who truly left everything, followed Jesus, and acquired the Kingdom—that is, Christ Himself.
Finally, on the Third Sunday, the Sermon on the Mount is proclaimed in order to show what the disciples of Christ should be like, what all Orthodox Christians should be like, and what the Church should be like if the world is to hear her.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is pure, your whole body will be full of light,” says the Lord.
This is, first of all, an address to the leaders of the Church, for they are the eye of God that looks upon the world and upon the Church and proclaims the Word of God. A special responsibility rests upon them; exceptional integrity and purity are required of them. Let us also recall the saying of the early Fathers of the Church: “The deacon is the eyes and ears of the bishop.” Not only those who govern in the Church must be righteous, but also those who have undertaken to assist them.
The Lord then addresses the whole community: “You cannot serve God and mammon.” This applies both to those who lead, such as priests, and to all the faithful.
We are not in the Church in order to make money. We are in the Church in order to give. We are in the Church in order to transform the material goods of the universe into the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the account of the calling of the Apostles, the Lord calls them to follow Him so that they may become not only spiritual fishermen—“fishers of men” through preaching—but also “fishers of fish for men,” imparting the Body and Blood of the Lord, doctrine, the sacraments, and divine goodness to all people.
The Lord calls us not to be anxious about food and drink, but to imitate the birds of heaven. This calling has been fulfilled in the Church. The martyrs of old, later the monastics, and many other pious believers whose spiritual struggle remains unseen live according to these words of the Lord. We simply do not see them.
The Church is the society of believers, the communion of saints, the Body of Christ. Within her, everything is shared. Therefore, those who literally fulfill the Lord’s words about imitating the birds of heaven make up for the lack of fulfillment of these words in other believers. This is similar to the way we baptize small children. Godparents, making up for the inability of infants to believe, lend them their own faith.
Let us rejoice in such communion within the Church and, whenever possible, help those who literally fulfill these words of the Lord by imitating the birds of heaven. They are in need of help, and the Lord Himself watches over them.
Whoever helps those in need within the Church—not professional beggars standing on the street asking for alms, but those nearby who are carrying out their Christian struggle—literally becomes the hand of God, representing the Heavenly Father who cares for the birds of heaven and for the “human birds,” for people who place all their trust in God: ascetics, monks, spiritual strugglers, pastors, laypeople asking for help, and the poor, as is mentioned in the Eucharistic prayer.
“For after all these things the Gentiles seek; for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The Gentiles seek pleasure, wealth, and power. These are the three temptations in the wilderness, the three sixes, the number 666 in the Apocalypse, the number of the days of creation without the final blessing, the sign of rebellion against God.
Christians are called to become an icon of the God whom they proclaim. Otherwise, each believer individually—and what is even more frightening, all believers together—will inevitably become a pagan, like the character in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, who was transformed into an insect. May the Lord preserve us from this.