Fake Vinedressers- Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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The message from today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 21: 33–42) refers most directly to today’s vinedressers, i.e. to the New Testament priesthood: first of all, to the Bishops, and then to the Presbyters; as well as to the spiritual vineyard – the New Testament people of God, the Church. The interpretation of this Gospel reading from the ascetic-hesychastic point of view reveals the reasons why the servants that have been sent by the Landlord – the Prophets, and the Son – the God-Man Jesus Christ were killed.
Two questions arise from this Gospel reading: firstly, who or what sort of fruit were the vinedressers (priesthood) supposed to bring (offer) to God? And secondly, what sort of fruit are some of them trying to produce, since they want to keep it to themselves, since they already think they have appropriated the vineyard?
According to the Holy Apostle Paul, the fruits of the Spirit that the vinedressers (priesthood) were supposed to bring to God from His vineyard (the faithful people of God) are the virtues: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control (Galatians 5, 22–23).
In order to achieve this goal, the priest of God (the Bishop, the Presbyter) must first purify himself from the passions of the heart, enlighten his mind, and if he can to attain deification – and then lead the entrusted to him people of God on that path of purification from passions, enlightenment, and deification. He needs humbly to incorporate himself into the unity of the Church, and then to upgrade that unity with his spiritual children.
The passions, as well as the demons associated with them, are the main reason why the inner peace and spiritual development of the members of the Church themselves, are disturbed, and then also, the love and peace between them, i.e. the Church unity. Here is how the Apostle James describes the struggle that arises in us and among us because of our passions: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your passions (desires for pleasures), that war in your members? You desire and you do not have; you murder and covet, and cannot obtain; you fight and war. Yet you do not have, because you do not ask. You ask, and do not receive, because you seek evil, that you may spend it in your pleasures ”(James 4: 1-3).
Thus, to those vinedressers (priests) who are seized by the passion of self-love, it does not suit the vineyard (the people of God) to offer fruits that are pleasing to God, but mainly fruits that will feed their passions. And it is very obvious that everything starts from the passions of vainglory, avarice, and love for pleasures of the vinedressers: “This is the Heir! Let us kill Him, and the inheritance will be ours ”(Mark 12: 7). Nowadays, in actual practice, we notice the same three subgroups of the main passion – self-love, which appear in the vinedressers, i.e. to some of the priesthood: We are witnesses that instead of love and Church unity, in the clergy there is a struggle for ecclesiastical supremacy and human glory, from the local level to the level of the entire Orthodox ecumene. Instead of witnessing Christ, some of them bear witness and promote themselves as well as their personal and national interests. For example: one Church administration does not recognize another because it does not want a Church solution to the problem, but a political one.
They satisfy the passion of avarice by giving preference to those positions and services in the Church from which they become rich, and the positions or services that do not satisfy them financially are neglected. Thank God that for the Holy Eucharist – Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ, as well as the Sacrament of Repentance – confession of sins and spiritual guidance, still no one dares to charge. That would be pure heresy.
The passion of love for pleasures compels people to satisfy their carnal passions, whether it is the pleasure of food or the pleasure of fornication. This passion is manifested, for example, in the claim of some of the clergy that they can always receive Communion without fasting, while at the same time the faithful are conditioned and forced to fast even more than what the Holy Church – led by the Holy Spirit, has determined.
“And when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? (…) He will destroy those wicked men, and he will give the vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons “.
Most-Holy Theotokos, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
(18.09.2021 15:42)
Photo: Fr. Gavril (Galev)
