My Beloved the benevolent                                                                 November 2020

Grace and peace wishing you every goodness and blessing

We continue our discussion on the characteristics of the new life we were granted in Christ Jesus Who sacrificed Himself to grant us this new life, “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2Cor. 5:15. One of the blessings of the new life in Christ Jesus is the enlightened mind.

God created man in His image and likeness and granted him a mind, as well as an additional blessing, which is the blessing of the enlightenment of the mind. The first man did not know evil because his mind was attached to God, the Maker of good works. When man disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he lost the enlightenment of the mind as he was separated from God, the Source of goodness, and evil entered his mind. God warned him against eating from the tree and said to him, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Gen. 2:17

The separation of man from God did not result in losing the blessing of the mind, but rather the blessing of the enlightened mind, therefore man remained intellectual but started using his mind for evil as well as good. Thus, we find Abel the righteous, whose offerings God accepted, and the evil Cain, who murdered his brother in anger and jealousy of him. Evils increased, and man began to invent new evils until God said to Noah the righteous, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Gen.6:13 God chose Noah and asked him to build an Ark and Noah did as God ordered him to do and saved himself and his family. A new life began after the flood, and humans remained; some who would use their mind for good and some who would use their mind for evil.

Christ came and took our human nature with an intellectual mind to save us from the bondage of sin and death. He granted us a new nature with an enlightened mind to please God in a holy life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The enlightened mind allows us to realize the meaning of life and that our earthly life is a temporal one and that we are invited to a blessed eternal life. We trade in the talents that we obtained in order to win and acquire the heavenly inheritance.

The Holy Bible provides us with examples of the enlightened mind and examples of the unenlightened mind because man’s actions are the fruit of the type of mind he carries. St. Paul called us to present our bodies as a holy sacrifice acceptable to God, and not to be of this world. But how? St. Paul says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Rom.12:1-2

+St. Peter who was a professional fisherman, had just faced a very tough night when he said to the Lord Jesus “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing;” Lu 5:5. But he obeyed the Lord and cast the net and caught a great amount of fish. With an enlightened mind St. Peter realized that he is in front of God the incarnate and that the issue is deeper than fishing, so he fell to his knees at the feet of Jesus saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Lu. 5:8 This enlightened mind that St. Peter has, allowed him to change from a fisher of fish to a fisher of man as our Lord Jesus said, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” Lu.5:10 and Peter and those who were with him left everything and followed Christ.   

+St. Mathew was a tax collector, whose mind was occupied with collecting money by any means, whether just or unjust.  On the outside, he was a man sitting at the tax office, but when the Lord said to him, “Follow Me”, he renewed his mind and was enlightened, he left everything and rose up and followed Him. Lu. 5:27-28 and he changed from Mathew the tax collector to Mathew the Apostle and the preacher.

+The unjust steward when he found that his stewardship will be taken away from him, went back and started correcting his mistakes, the master praised him that he had acted wisely. Thus, Christ the Lord said, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” Lu. 16:9-10

We are the stewards of the money that God granted us, and the trustworthy steward should use His Master’s money according to His Master’s will.  Thus, when we don’t use money in helping the needy according to Christ’s commandment to us, the money becomes unjust. The rich man who did not care for Lazarus the sick was considered unjust towards him, although he was not the reason for his illness or his poverty, but he did not use his money to help him.

May the Lord grant us an enlightened mind to use the talents we were given to the glory of His Holy Name.

May God bless your offerings to support Santa Verena Charity Programs.

Metropolitan Serapion