“Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
(Matthew 10, 16-22; Genesis 36)
To be truly human in this world is to be like a sheep among wolves, because “the whole world lies in evil” (Jn. 5, 19). I was saying, to repeat, you should remember that well: a sheep among wolves is in danger from two sides. The first is that the wolves incapacitate it, that is, tear it apart. That is why the Son of God does not send you. The second danger is that a sheep, seeing and concluding that it cannot survive among wolves in any other way than as a wolf, becomes a wolf, sharpens its teeth, learns to howl, turns its hooves into claws and becomes a wolf from a sheep. Christ does not send us for that either, but that we, with our faith and living according to that faith, will persuade the wolves to become the sheep of Christ, if they will.
To get rid of both dangers, Christ gives a solution and says: “be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves”. Wisdom will keep you from being pulled apart, from being torn apart. And harmlessness, kindness, will keep you from becoming wolves. On the other hand, it also means that we can develop our mental, rational abilities more and more, infinitely, but on the condition that we simultaneously develop kindness in ourselves, because then kindness will give balance. It is the mind, what is of this world, that flies and bees look at with us with their thousand eyes. But we see with the mind what they cannot see, which are those inner spiritual realities and eternity.
But the mind is cold. It cuts sometimes through the heart, next to the heart. Kindness, on the other hand, is warm but blind. In our nation, I repeat, it is said: “A good man and a fool are like brothers”. That is if someone is only good and of little intelligence, everyone not only exploits him but also makes fun of him, puts his foot down. Well, so that our mind does not turn into wickedness, as they say, and goodness does not turn into stupidity, we need to unite both mind and goodness. This is a true Evangelical man, a true Christian Orthodox personality. Both mind and kindness.
We are in danger of a man developing his mind, but forgetting about kindness, or according to him, it is for smaller, lower people, and ruining his life and the life of his neighbors. Because, all those big criminals, fraudsters, they have a developed mind and often great abilities and even school, elaborated. And let’s face it, the goodness that I said is also insufficient and deficient.
So there is a solution for the Christian man. Developing the mind is given to us by God, and with it we are different from other living beings who have only instincts. We also have instincts, but we have a mind given to us by God and with which He raised us. We have a heart and a will and freedom.
May the Lord teach us and help us to always have and develop a mind and kindness, for His glory, for the benefit of our family, our people and all mankind, and for our and their salvation. God bless you!
Sermon at the Holy Liturgy on Thursday the 33rd of Pentecost
in the Patriarchal Chapel of Saint Simeon the Myrrh-bearing.