Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Woe also to you ! You impose on people burdens hard to carry




Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11:42-46.

Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces.
Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk."
Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, "Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too."
And he said, "Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.

Commentary of the day
Sayings of the Desert Fathers (4th-5th centuries)
Systematic Collection, ch. 9 (SC 387, p. 427f.)

"Woe also to you ! You impose on people burdens hard to carry"

A brother who had sinned was dismissed from the church by the priest, and Abba Bessarion rose and went out with him, saying: «I, too, am a sinner»...

One of the brothers at Scete committed a sin. A council was held to which Abba Moses was called. But he refused to come. Then the priest sent someone to say to him: «Come; everyone is waiting for you». He stood up and came with a basket with a hole in it on his back which he filled with sand. And that is how he carried it. The others, coming out to meet him, said to him: «Father, what is this?» The old man said: «My sins are pouring out behind me and I do not see them, and am I coming today to judge the sins of another?» Hearing this they said nothing to that brother but forgave him.

Abba Joseph questioned Abba Poemen, saying: «Tell me how to become a monk». The old man said: «If you want to find rest in this life and in the world to come, say on every occasion: 'As for me, who am I? And judge no one'».

A brother questioned this same Abba Poemen, saying: «If I see a sin in my brother, is it better to hide it?» The old man said: «The moment we hide our brother's sin, God hides ours too; and the moment we reveal the sins of our brother, God also reveals ours».

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