Chrysostom
Beloved of All
The present weight upon your shoulders, this tangled concern of property and sale, does it not reveal the nature of these worldly attachments? Consider what has been spoken: look at the burdens of sin, the covetous transactions, the disappointments, the anxieties, the daily wars that spring up from them. For you now feel a heavy burden, and you rightly see it. But see also that Christ, who for your sake endured what was far more bitter, calls you to bear all things looking to the Master. If He suffered the Cross, which He calls glory and honor, should you not bear this lesser trouble for His sake?
Your request seeks relief from care, yet I must not leave you where you are, thinking only of the house. The prayer of the faithful does not treat the passing order of this world as the final object of our desire. Why then do we draw upon ourselves so great cares over and above those of nature? Is it not enough to take thought for things necessary? Be not anxious. The yoke of trust in God is sweet and light; the burden of clinging to these passing things is what brings sorrow and despondency. The tribunal to come judges our actions alone, not the speed of a sale.
Stand away from that crowded marketplace of the mind. What you truly need is not a swift transaction, but a quiet heart that says, "Fear not." As the angel said to Joseph, so the word of comfort comes to you now: remember the promises made to the whole household of faith, and do not be greatly perturbed. Has your affection for Christ grown so cold that a delay in temporal matter troubles you more than the thought of standing before the living God? Let your prayer, therefore, be turned not to the house, but to the submission of your will. Ask for grace to bear the fruit of the Spirit in this trial, to seize the freedom of a life anchored not in wood and stone, but in the city whose builder and maker is God. Bear this delay, if it should come, as a light and momentary burden, and not as one of the intolerable punishments you have graciously been spared.
Your request seeks relief from care, yet I must not leave you where you are, thinking only of the house. The prayer of the faithful does not treat the passing order of this world as the final object of our desire. Why then do we draw upon ourselves so great cares over and above those of nature? Is it not enough to take thought for things necessary? Be not anxious. The yoke of trust in God is sweet and light; the burden of clinging to these passing things is what brings sorrow and despondency. The tribunal to come judges our actions alone, not the speed of a sale.
Stand away from that crowded marketplace of the mind. What you truly need is not a swift transaction, but a quiet heart that says, "Fear not." As the angel said to Joseph, so the word of comfort comes to you now: remember the promises made to the whole household of faith, and do not be greatly perturbed. Has your affection for Christ grown so cold that a delay in temporal matter troubles you more than the thought of standing before the living God? Let your prayer, therefore, be turned not to the house, but to the submission of your will. Ask for grace to bear the fruit of the Spirit in this trial, to seize the freedom of a life anchored not in wood and stone, but in the city whose builder and maker is God. Bear this delay, if it should come, as a light and momentary burden, and not as one of the intolerable punishments you have graciously been spared.
