Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your words reveal a heart weighed down by heavy burdens, and it is right to bring these needs before God and His church. But let us consider what our Lord teaches in the Gospel. He commands us, "Take no thought for your soul, what you shall eat," not because the body needs nothing, but because the Father knows our needs before we ask. When Peter and the apostles were sent out without purse or bag, did they lack anything? Neither will you, if you seek first the kingdom of God.
You speak of home, food, transportation, work. The body requires these, but the soul requires far more the bread of thanksgiving and the shelter of trust. Look at the saints who sleep under heaven with grass for a couch and the moon for their lamp: they have no anxious care, for they lean entirely on the providence of God. Does that mean you should not labor or seek help? Not at all: the idle man disobeys. But labor with peace, not with an anxious mind that drowns the soul in luxury's flood. Much of what we call need is really desire dressed up in necessity's clothes. The woman hiding in terror beside a coffin had no thought for dainty food or fine clothes; yet God sustained her. Your trial can become a furnace that refines, not consumes.
Your longing to see your mother and brother is natural and godly. Family ties are a gift. Pray for them, write to them if you can, and entrust the timing to God. He who arranged for Joseph to see his father in Egypt still arranges meetings. Meanwhile, let the church family be your family, and the alms of the faithful be your supply. We have before us the example of the believers who, even in their poverty, sent relief to the saints in Judea according to their ability. That twofold famine of bread and of hearing God's word is still with us: but almsgiving nourishes the giver's soul more than the receiver's body. It is a treasure no thief touches, a wall no robber breaches, a food that leaves no sickness.
Do not be ashamed to receive or to ask. And do not let your heart be hardened by suspicion. Some say, "That beggar is an impostor," and so refuse mercy. But if a man asks only for a loaf, not for gold or silks, what is that but the request of a philosopher? Better to be wronged by kindness than to starve compassion with over-curious inquiries. The truly needy soul stands before you, and you may be Christ's hands.
Come to the assembly and sing psalms. The Spirit-filled song drives away the madness of worry and fills the mind with a cheerfulness no wine can give. You need not only food for the belly, but the solid meat of God's word, not just milk. Seek that table first, and these other things will be added. The persecutions of poverty and loneliness are real, but they are the very arena where virtue is proved. One person who does God's will is worth ten thousand transgressors. You, though few in family, can be that one.
You speak of home, food, transportation, work. The body requires these, but the soul requires far more the bread of thanksgiving and the shelter of trust. Look at the saints who sleep under heaven with grass for a couch and the moon for their lamp: they have no anxious care, for they lean entirely on the providence of God. Does that mean you should not labor or seek help? Not at all: the idle man disobeys. But labor with peace, not with an anxious mind that drowns the soul in luxury's flood. Much of what we call need is really desire dressed up in necessity's clothes. The woman hiding in terror beside a coffin had no thought for dainty food or fine clothes; yet God sustained her. Your trial can become a furnace that refines, not consumes.
Your longing to see your mother and brother is natural and godly. Family ties are a gift. Pray for them, write to them if you can, and entrust the timing to God. He who arranged for Joseph to see his father in Egypt still arranges meetings. Meanwhile, let the church family be your family, and the alms of the faithful be your supply. We have before us the example of the believers who, even in their poverty, sent relief to the saints in Judea according to their ability. That twofold famine of bread and of hearing God's word is still with us: but almsgiving nourishes the giver's soul more than the receiver's body. It is a treasure no thief touches, a wall no robber breaches, a food that leaves no sickness.
Do not be ashamed to receive or to ask. And do not let your heart be hardened by suspicion. Some say, "That beggar is an impostor," and so refuse mercy. But if a man asks only for a loaf, not for gold or silks, what is that but the request of a philosopher? Better to be wronged by kindness than to starve compassion with over-curious inquiries. The truly needy soul stands before you, and you may be Christ's hands.
Come to the assembly and sing psalms. The Spirit-filled song drives away the madness of worry and fills the mind with a cheerfulness no wine can give. You need not only food for the belly, but the solid meat of God's word, not just milk. Seek that table first, and these other things will be added. The persecutions of poverty and loneliness are real, but they are the very arena where virtue is proved. One person who does God's will is worth ten thousand transgressors. You, though few in family, can be that one.
