Romans 5:1-10; Matthew 6:22-33

          It is often easy to see when other people are blind to what ought to be an obvious truth.  There is a common human tendency to become so focused on something that we lose the ability to see clearly.  That is especially the case when we are overcome with worry and fear to the point that we do not have a realistic perspective on what is most important.  Though we probably notice other people falling into this trap all the time, it is much harder to detect in ourselves.  Our passions so easily make us blind to the truth and bring darkness to our souls.

Christ said that “The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”  Christ is the light of the world, and to know Him means to share in His life so fully that we become radiant with His gracious divine energies from the depths of our souls.  The eyes of our hearts must become fully transparent to His light so that we will be able to obey His commandment: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14-16)

If the eyes of our souls are not full of the light of Christ, we will not know the truth about ourselves or anything else in God, or come anywhere close to being the light of the world.  That is the inevitable result of trying to serve two masters.  Christ said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”  The Bible is filled with warnings against the idolatrous love of money and earthly possessions, which are gifts from God to be offered back to Him for the salvation of the world, including the healing of our souls and the blessing of “the least of these” with whom our Lord identified Himself.  Unless the eyes of our souls are cleansed, we will use the good things of creation to serve our passions in ways that will never bring us peace.  Those who entrust themselves to money, possessions, and worldly success face great temptations toward worry, fear, and resentment, for such things can vanish in an instant, and everyone else is a potential threat to them.  As the Lord taught, “the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”

The spiritual disciplines of the Apostles Fast provide us all with opportunities to clarify our spiritual vision and gain the strength to see all the blessings of this life as gifts to be offered to God.  In order to fast in a spiritually health way, we must lift up our hearts to God in prayer on a daily basis.  In order to become receptive to the healing light of our Lord, we must persistently open the darkened eyes of our souls to Him.  Instead of trying to judge ourselves by how we feel during prayer, how many prayers we say, or how long we stand before our icons, let us simply open our hearts to Him as best we can as we focus our minds on the words of the Jesus Prayer, the Trisagion Prayers, the Psalms, or whatever simple order of prayer we are using.  Short prayers with focus and humility are better than long ones with distraction and pride.  Even the shortest rule of prayer said consistently is better for the soul than a more elaborate one rarely used. If we want healing from the blindness and anxiety of entrusting ourselves to the things of this world, we must ground our life in prayer from the depths of our hearts.

Fasting is important for the cleansing of our spiritual vision because what we do with our bodies impacts our souls.   By freely choosing not to indulge in the richest foods, we gain strength for resisting other temptations to satisfy ourselves with money, power, possessions, or pleasure.  Learning that we can live without eating or drinking what we would prefer teaches us that life is not about serving ourselves.  Fasting fights the anxiety that arises from assuming that gratifying our desire for this or that is the most important thing in life.  When done in the context of intensified prayer, fasting is a powerful tool for opening ourselves to the healing light of Christ.

Almsgiving is fueled by prayer, for the gracious mercy of the Lord becomes characteristic of those who unite themselves to Him from their hearts.  Fasting heals the self-centered desires that hinder us from seeing and serving Christ in our suffering neighbors.  As well, those who fast with integrity will spend less money and time on their own meals, thus freeing up resources to bless others.  The practice of generous giving to the needy, and in support of the ministries of the Church, also helps us to resist the temptation to make a false god out of our money and possessions.   Embracing this practice will teach us that material blessings are not ends in themselves to be made into false gods, but gifts to be offered back to God, like the bread and wine of the Eucharist.  “Thine own of Thine own, we offer unto Thee, on behalf of all and for all.”

If we seek to open our darkened spiritual eyes to the brilliant light of Christ through prayer, fasting, and merciful generosity, we will have to struggle mightily with the darkness that remains in us, as well as with the corruption of a world that worships possessions, power, and pleasure.  Looking to the examples of the apostles, however, we must not despair.  Saint Paul endured great hardships of many kinds and ultimately died as a martyr. He wrote that, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”

Saint Paul knew that the only way to make the struggles of our lives points of entrance to the blessedness of the Kingdom was to endure them with faithfulness, no matter the cost.  He did not do so merely by his own strength, but “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” As St. Paul taught, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”

True Christianity is not a system of beliefs, rituals, and morals through which we seek to gain spiritual or temporal benefits. It is not a form of legalism by which we hope to receive what we have earned from God, whether in this life or in the life of the world to come.  A faith the chief symbol of which is the Cross is not about achieving anything merely by our own power. It provides, instead, a calling to become so receptive to the healing presence of the Holy Spirit that we behold the glory of the Lord and see all the joys and struggles of this life as they truly are before Him.  Christ calls us to share so fully in His life that we seek first His kingdom with the humble trust that overcomes anxiety about literally anything.  By His glorious resurrection, the Savior has conquered even the grave and liberated us from slavery to the fear of death.  Remember that when the Lord said, “Do not be anxious about your life,” He was addressing His disciples as fellow Jews living under Roman occupation who would literally suffer and die for Him.

Since none of us has perfect spiritual clarity and we often find ourselves anxious about very small things, we must intentionally open the eyes of our souls to Christ through prayer, fasting, and generosity, even as we struggle mindfully to resist the temptation to make anything in this world a false god.  The daily circumstances of our lives all provide countless opportunities for us to do precisely that.  If we will use them for our salvation, and humbly repent whenever we have not, then the light of Christ will illumine us as we unite ourselves evermore fully to Him.    That is how we may all learn to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” in a world that remains so full of darkness and presents so many temptations to idolatry and fear.  He is the light that we all need in order to see clearly and live faithfully each and every day of our lives.