James 3:11-4:6Brethren, does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Mark 7:14-24At that time, Jesus called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.
This is the second day in a row that we hear Christ saying man is defiled, not from without but from within. The repetition allows us each time to highlight a different point made by St. James in the Epistle. While yesterday's reading regarded evil speech, today's concerns the general war of the passions within us, which produces evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. St. James opens with a paraphrase of the Lord's famous words in the Gospel of Matthew, "You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thorn bushes? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits" (7:16-20). St. James repeatedly emphasises the need for works, not in order to suggest that we can save ourselves by our works - indeed, since salvation consists of union with God and participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:14), the notion of salvation by works is quite absurd! - but because true faith necessarily produces good works. In other words, if we have no works, it is clear that neither do we have any faith. If our soul is distant from God, our heart darkened and polluted by sin, our mind chained to earthly cares, we will produce works accordingly.
While Christ speaks specifically about food not being able to pollute, I think this can also be taken as a wider metaphor for what the Fathers call 'apathia' or dispassion. While the modern English word 'apathy' tends to mean indifference, the Fathers use it to mean mastery over the passions. Just as food does not enter the heart, but goes into the stomach and is then expelled, so it should be with the passions. A dispassionate person, when confronted with a temptation, does not allow it to enter his heart, where it can take root and war against him, but allows it simply to pass through before it is expelled.
Christ leaves the land of the Jews and departs into the region of Tyre and Sidon, the land of the Gentiles. He does this to signify that He will "let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons" (Matt. 21:41). The Pharisees, having rejected the wisdom that comes down from above, in favour of that which is earthly and unspiritual, had made themselves enemies of God because of their friendship to the ways of the world. And if this applied to the Jew, who had received only the Law and the shadow of things to come, how much more does it apply to the Christian who has "seen the true light, received the heavenly Spirit, and found the true faith" as we sing at every Divine Liturgy?! We who have been born again through the waters of baptism and have become temples of the Holy Spirit should take note when read that He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, making sure that although we are in the world, we are not of it, for "if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He enters a house and did not want anyone to know in order to show us that it is through humility that we receive grace from above with which to attain this true wisdom, and that it is in this meekness of wisdom that our works will be made manifest. This is why we then read yet he could not be hidden. The "Father who sees in secret will reward you openly" (Matt. 6:4). When we have true faith, a clean heart, and are mindful of the things above, not those below, we cannot but make ready that harvest of righteousness which is sown in peace by those who make peace. As St. Seraphim of Sarov famously said, "Find peace within yourself, and a thousand around you shall be saved."
While Christ speaks specifically about food not being able to pollute, I think this can also be taken as a wider metaphor for what the Fathers call 'apathia' or dispassion. While the modern English word 'apathy' tends to mean indifference, the Fathers use it to mean mastery over the passions. Just as food does not enter the heart, but goes into the stomach and is then expelled, so it should be with the passions. A dispassionate person, when confronted with a temptation, does not allow it to enter his heart, where it can take root and war against him, but allows it simply to pass through before it is expelled.
Christ leaves the land of the Jews and departs into the region of Tyre and Sidon, the land of the Gentiles. He does this to signify that He will "let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons" (Matt. 21:41). The Pharisees, having rejected the wisdom that comes down from above, in favour of that which is earthly and unspiritual, had made themselves enemies of God because of their friendship to the ways of the world. And if this applied to the Jew, who had received only the Law and the shadow of things to come, how much more does it apply to the Christian who has "seen the true light, received the heavenly Spirit, and found the true faith" as we sing at every Divine Liturgy?! We who have been born again through the waters of baptism and have become temples of the Holy Spirit should take note when read that He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, making sure that although we are in the world, we are not of it, for "if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He enters a house and did not want anyone to know in order to show us that it is through humility that we receive grace from above with which to attain this true wisdom, and that it is in this meekness of wisdom that our works will be made manifest. This is why we then read yet he could not be hidden. The "Father who sees in secret will reward you openly" (Matt. 6:4). When we have true faith, a clean heart, and are mindful of the things above, not those below, we cannot but make ready that harvest of righteousness which is sown in peace by those who make peace. As St. Seraphim of Sarov famously said, "Find peace within yourself, and a thousand around you shall be saved."
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